In-N-Out severed relationship with their bread manufacturer Tuesday after receiving two shipments of bad bread, said executive VP of operations Bob Lang Jr.
Lang said that customers and employees began complaining about the bread taste being off Sunday night. They closed 8 stores initially, but then had to close all of them after the second shipment of “emergency bread” from the same supplier was also bad.
He said that it was an issue of the yeast possibly being overdeveloped. It had a bad taste.
He said that they were able to open Wednesday, but only because they had supplier in California ship more emergency bread. They will continue doing this while they look for a new supplier, which he says is already in the works, but could take months.
He would not confirm the name of the supplier. He could not confirm if the same supplier bakes bread for Whataburger or other chains, but said, “I can tell you it’s pretty ironic.”
In terms of the financial impact on In-N-Out, he isn’t sure what those numbers look like yet, but said, “it really hurt the business.”