In the 1930′s after her husband’s stroke, Grandma Grebe began baking butterhorns at home for the local PTA, and Grebe’s Bakery was born.
Jim Grebe, president and CEO of Grebe’s Bakery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, says his grandparents really weren’t bakers to begin with; rather, they were both musicians and hosted their own radio show on Milwaukee’s number one station, WTMJ. ‘My grandfather could play any instrument really well….almost a musical genius.
The stroke cut short a promising musical career and necessitated the start of what would become one of the Midwest’s most successful baked goods producers.
Since 1930, Grebe’s has grown to the point of having two retail outlets in Milwaukee, but more importantly, has become a household word and predominant bakery distributor throughout Illinois and Wisconsin. Grebe’s produces and distributes around 900 different bakery products to more than a million people in the Midwest. Seventeen Peterbilt trucks deliver Grebe’s baked goods to 300 retail outlets seven days a week.