The bakery, which will produce fresh breads and buns for markets in Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio, will open with one production line this coming fall. A second production line will be added later. Flowers Foods expects to invest about $52 million in the bakery over the next two years.

"Demand for our baked foods continues to grow as we expand our geographic territory and gain greater share within our existing core markets," said George Deese, chairman, C.E.O. and president of Flowers Foods. "Bardstown is strategically located at the northern part of our current market and territory for our fresh baked foods, and this bakery will help serve new markets as we expand northward. The added capacity will also help relieve production pressure at our other bakeries."