Business View - August 2015 107
late 18th century, brought in by Southern German and
Swiss German immigrants, better known as the Penn-
sylvania Dutch. Pretzel bakeries have populated the
central Pennsylvania countryside for generations, and
from there, the pretzel has spread across the country.
Today, Pennsylvania still produces 80 percent of the
country’s pretzels, and traditional pretzel baking tech-
niques from centuries past are is still being practiced
by descendants of the state’s early settlers.
It was one such practitioner of this particular culinary
art that became the genesis of Jones and Krider’s fu-
ture business. His name was Ben Miller. Yes, there is
a Ben. His story, how he met up with his two entre-
preneurial partners, and how that changed everyone’s
lives, is recounted by Jones:
“Ben and his wife had a business called Ben’s Bak-
ery, making breads and pies and cookies; really good,
delicious items that enhanced everyone’s waist line,
including my own. And they had an opportunity to buy
a soft pretzel business, just immediately adjacent to
their bakery stand in a farmers’ market in South Bend.
So, they bought the little pretzel shop, but when they
FRANCHISE
AT A GLANCE
WHO:
Ben’s Soft Pretzels
WHAT:
Franchiser of soft pretzel outlets
WHERE:
Headquarters in Goshen, Indiana
WEBSITE
:
