Sunlite Bakery

Summary

Business	Bakery
Main Location	San Jose, CA

Bread wrapper logo

Sunlite Bakery was a San Jose- based bakery. Sunlite Bakery was started in 1933 operated by the Gilliland family. The initial plant on Almaden Ave. had a capacity of 300 loaves an hour and three delivery trucks. The new plant on Montgomery Street, designed by Ralph Wycoff in 1936 By 1952, the bread was “sold in 98% of all food stores from King City in the south to Burlingame on the peninsula, and to Hayward in Alameda county.”, had a staff of 140, and could produce 14,000 loaves of bread an hour. The company received a full carload of flour each day on its own spur track .

Little-known fact: According to a random thread on Facebook, San Jose's first TV station, KNTV channel 11, was originally owned by Sunlite Bakery, which was owned by the Gilliland family. The station's studios and offices were built next door to the bakery. KNTV's headquarters were at Montgomery and Park into the modern era.

Locations

Location	Years	Address	Details
San Jose	1933-	Almaden Ave.
San Jose	1936-	Montgomery St.	Building exists, and is now an AT&T office. The TV building burned down in 2014.

Photos

Drawing of sale of land to Sunlite Bakery.

Spur track to serve Sunlite Bakery. Plan for proposed work by Southern Pacific.