THOMASVILLE, GA. — Flowers Foods Inc. is banking on the relaunch of Nature’s Own to reinvigorate the brand — its largest — and rekindle consumer demand in the traditional loaf bread segment, which chairman and chief executive officer A. Ryals McMullian has described as soft.

The Nature’s Own refresh, announced May 21, brings new-look packaging and a simpler formulation to the brand’s full product portfolio, with up to 38% fewer ingredients and all offerings now Non-GMO Project verified, according to Flowers Foods. Ushering in the “Real. Soft. Bread.” tagline, the initiative also includes an integrated marketing campaign featuring actor and retired professional wrestler John Cena as the official “Breaducator” to promote the new formulation for Nature’s Own.

“This marks the first major relaunch of our flagship brand in well over a decade and represents the next step in its long history of innovation since its introduction in 1977,” McMullian said. “Grounded in extensive consumer insights, the relaunch further strengthens Nature’s Own’s position in the better-for-you segment with simpler ingredients and Non-GMO Project verified products. These enhancements better align the brand with the evolving needs of today’s consumers while further differentiating us from the competition.”

McMullian said the campaign also is intended to bolster Nature’s Own’s value proposition and deepen consumer engagement, noting that the relaunch includes the brand’s half-loaf products, addressing consumer preferences for not just fewer, simpler ingredients but also freshness, portion size and affordability. The Nature’s Own line includes bread, buns and rolls.

“The campaign highlights the brand’s refreshed positioning around simpler ingredients, Non-GMO Project verified products and other better-for-you attributes that increasingly resonate with health-conscious consumers,” he said. “John (Cena)’s broad appeal and strong favorability make him a highly effective ambassador to communicate these benefits in a compelling and accessible way, while naturally reinforcing themes of strength, wellness and healthier living.”

On the campaign’s “Breaducate Yourself” website, the company lists a 20-oz loaf of Nature’s Own Honey Wheat Bread under the new formulation with 16 ingredients, down from 23 ingredients in the previous formulation. Key changes included the removal of enriched flour (taking out niacin, thiamin, riboflavin, folic acid and some iron), soybean oil, monoglycerides, calcium sulfate, monocalcium phosphate, ascorbic acid and soy lecithin. Meanwhile, the new recipe includes expeller pressed canola oil, flax seed meal, vinegar and acerola cherry powder.

“The decision to update Nature’s Own recipes was grounded in consumer research showing a clear preference for shorter, easy-to-recognize ingredient lists,” Brent Bradshaw, senior vice president of core brands for Flowers, said following the relaunch announcement. “At the same time, Flowers recognizes that consumers have differing priorities and that enrichment plays an important role for many, and we continue to offer a variety of enriched products, including Wonder bread.”

Traditional loaf is about 38% of Flowers' branded retail business but has been a "soft spot for us," chairman and CEO A. Ryals McMullian said. 

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In a Nature’s Own consumer survey conducted by Atomik Research, over 80% of 2,000 adults ages 25 to 54 said simpler ingredients make them more apt to serve bread across multiple meals throughout the day. Similarly, 8 in 10 parents said clear nutritional information on the packaging influences their bread-buying decisions.

“We designed this campaign to engage consumers across the entire path to purchase and clearly communicate the product’s key attributes at shelf,” McMullian said. “The early response from our retail customers and DSD (direct-store delivery) partners is encouraging. We believe these efforts will further reinforce Nature’s Own’s leadership position in the category.”

The Nature’s Own refresh dovetails with Flowers’ efforts to fuel growth in its other better-for-you brands, including Dave’s Killer Bread (organic bread and snacks), Canyon Bakehouse (gluten-free bread) and Simple Mills (snacks), McMullian said. He added that Nature’s Own Keto gained 180 basis points of unit share and 250 basis points of dollar share in the first quarter.

“Our commitment to investing behind our strongest brands is already evident in the relaunch of Nature’s Own,” McMullian said. “At the same time, we are working to reshape the bread, buns and rolls category by leaning into faster-growing, better-for-you segments. We continue to build on our leadership in specialty offerings, including our position as the No. 1 one keto bread brand nationally, while expanding our presence in functional innovation through the national launch of protein bread and buns. These products align with evolving consumer preferences and represent important drivers of future growth.”

In a May 22 conference call with analysts on Flowers’ fiscal 2026 first-quarter results, McMullian noted that the Nature’s Own recipe change marked “a big deal for us.”

“This was a huge pivot that the team made, and it took a lot of work to get done — reformulating and taking out another one-third of the ingredients, essentially being the cleanest-label traditional loaf bread at scale in the country and Non-GMO verified,” he said. “It took a lot of investment. And of course, we’ve got the 360-degree marketing campaign behind it, leveraging John Cena’s celebrity.”

When asked in the call what would signal success for the Nature’s Own relaunch, McMullian responded improvement for Flowers’ traditional loaf business.

“The traditional loaf category has been the soft spot for us; we’ve been talking about this for a number of quarters now,” he said. “The rest of the business essentially is doing quite well on the premium and the value end, but traditional loaf is approximately 38% of our branded retail. So it’s a big segment for us, and getting that part of the category stabilized is how I would describe success. So, at a minimum, getting our volumes stabilized in traditional loaf will do more for the business than any other lever that we can pull.”

Flowers doesn’t expect the Nature’s Own campaign “to have an immediate impact,” McMullian said, explaining that it likely will be six months to a year before the company can get a full picture of the relaunch’s effectiveness.

“But I do think between the increased marketing spend, higher visibility and remembering that Nature’s Own has the highest loyalty rate in the category, it’s the No. 1 brand, and we have the No. 1 SKU, getting consumers’ attention and bringing them back to that segment by delivering value in the sets of attributes that resonate with consumers, to me, that's what will ultimately drive our success,” he said.