Flowers Foods, parent company of Oxford’s Tastykake bakery, reports its new market sales doubled last year’s second quarter direct store sales due to the success of both Tastykake and Nature’s Own products.

Flowers Foods invested a total of $49 million in the Oxford bakery it purchased in 2011 and brought 77 new jobs to the county.

The parent company, based in Thomasville, Ga., also opened a bun line in Henderson, Nev. and a bakery in Knoxville, Tenn. The purchase of other brands is apparently proving to be a profitable strategy for the firm.  It reports sales of acquired bread brands Wonder, Home Pride, Merita and Butternut increased about 34.5 percent since the first quarter of the year.

“Although the second quarter was challenging, we remain confident in our long-term growth strategies,” said Allen L. Shiver, president and CEO of Flowers Foods. “We are particularly encouraged by the traction we are continuing to see in our new markets, where sales doubled since last year. We also are seeing strong sequential growth in our acquired bread brands. As a team, we are working to control those issues within our reach while maintaining a strong, flexible financial position to weather near-term challenges.”

The full Flowers Foods second quarter financial report is here.

“For the remainder of 2014, our team will focus on improving sales and earnings in our existing bakeries and in the markets we have entered,” Shiver said.  Our success in new markets, the strength of our brands, the efficiencies of our bakeries, and the experience of our team give me confidence in the future of Flowers Foods.”