Burt McGlynn, chairman of the board of DecoPac Inc., passed away Dec. 23 at his home in Florida. He was 88 years old. He had recently suffered from congestive heart failure and other complications.
As chair and co-creator of DecoPac, the world’s largest marketer of cake decorations for professional decorators, and former chair of McGlynn Bakeries, McGlynn was a baking industry entrepreneur for more than 50 years.
He got his start in the baking industry at age 15 as a cleaner in his father James T. McGlynn’s bakery, where he worked until World War II, when he left to serve as a baker in the Navy, stationed in the Philippines. He took over McGlynn’s from his father in 1956 and sold the business two years later to Emrich Baking Co.
He stayed on for a few years as head of retail operations, before he left to start opening in-store bakeries in the new Target stores near the Twin Cities. By 1972, more than 35 Target stores had in-store McGlynn’s bakery departments. Over the next few decades, McGlynn’s expanded to include frozen bakery products and was eventually sold to Pillsbury. In 1982, the bakery formed a second new business, DecoPac Inc., as an internal company supplying cake decorations to McGlynn’s stores. Today DecoPac employs more than 500 people and has annual revenues exceeding $125 million.
McGlynn is survived by four sons, one of whom works in the family business; one daughter; 16 grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren.
The visitation will take place Jan. 4 in Edina, Minn., and the funeral will take place Jan. 5 in Minneapolis.