Auntie Anne’s founder Anne Beiler took a unique path to a unique career.
The entrepreneur, author and speaker grew up in an Amish-Mennonite community in Pennsylvania and attended Amish school before launching her now-famous pretzel business in 1988.
Her faith continues to guide her both personally and professionally, as she recently explained to The Christian Post.
“I love my life,” she said in the interview. “I love my Savior. I love the redemption. I love my family. I’m walking in the light.”
Beiler and her husband, Jonas, began attending an evangelical Christian church soon after they got married, according to Christian Broadcasting Network.
In her interview with The Christian Post, Beiler explained how she’s leaned on her faith as she’s navigated life’s challenges.
“It’s amazing to me how Jesus has redeemed every part of me,” she said.
She said she turned to God for support after her 19-month-old daughter, Angela, died in 1975 and then again when the pastor she went to for counseling drew her into an abusive relationship.
She said speaking with her husband and with faith leaders helped her heal.
When Jonas Beiler became aware of how much his wife was suffering, he felt called to offer financial support to others, according to Anne Beiler’s personal website. She started selling pretzels in 1988 at a farmer’s market in Downington, Pennsylvania, to bring in extra money to support this mission.
“Their soft pretzels were a hit and Auntie Anne’swas born,” Beiler’s website explains.
Auntie Anne’s and religion
As Auntie Anne’s grew from a small operation at a farmer’s market to a major company, Beiler continued to lean on her faith.
Beiler saw running the company as a mission from God and worked to wed religious teachings with business principles, as she explained in her 2021 book on leadership, which was recently excerpted by The Christian Post.
“Everything I did became an outpouring of my heart, and I began to find new ways to put my most deeply held values to work in my life and business,” she wrote.
The promise to “Honor God” ultimately became part of Auntie Anne’s statement of purpose, Beiler noted.
In 2005, Beiler sold Auntie Anne’s to a longtime employee and began focusing on her writing and speaking. By that time, there were around 850 Auntie Anne’s locations across the country and around the world, according to QSR magazine.
Who is the real Auntie Anne?
Today, Beiler is focused on her motivational speaking career, as well as her writing projects.
, the company's founder, instilled in the workplace her sense of Christian evangelism and ethical consumerism. She considered her employees and franchisees friends and, in ways, her extended family, united in building a business founded on Christian principles and dedicated to good works.
The entrepreneur, author and speaker grew up in an Amish-Mennonite community in Pennsylvania and attended Amish school before launching her now-famous pretzel business in 1988. Her faith continues to guide her both personally and professionally, as she recently explained to The Christian Post.
They came to be seen as a symbol of good luck, prosperity, and spiritual fulfillment. The three holes in the traditional pretzel shape have also taken on religious meaning over the years. These are sometimes seen as being representative of the Holy Trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
When "Auntie" Anne Beiler started her pretzel stand, she said, "Caring for other people is the purpose of Auntie Anne's." Thirty years later, that commitment to giving back continues to motivate us. Meet our charitable partners and see how you can get involved.
The monks used the pretzel's distinctive knot shape to represent the Holy Trinity, with the three holes in the pretzel symbolizing the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This theory also ties the pretzel's history to religious practices and traditions.
They believe the pretzel shape represents the holy trinity, the three holes representing the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Soft pretzels using a simple recipe of only flour, water, and salt were used during Lent when Christians were not permitted to eat eggs, lard, or any dairy products.
Pretzels are also strongly associated with Lent, as they do not contain eggs or dairy and are thus ideal for fasting. It started popping up in medieval art as a lucky symbol, most famously in Herrad of Landsberg's encyclopedia Hortus Deliciarum.
Early Christians refrained from eating dairy products during Lent. Pretzels were made of flour, salt, and water. They had a special meaning. The simplicity of water, salt, and flour suggested commitment and attention, not least also prayer.
Anne and Jonas Beiler were both raised Mennonite, and in her book Twist of Faith, Anne talks about how God helped her through a family tragedy and helped her build Auntie Anne's. But the halo over the pretzel in the company's logo was introduced in 2006 after Sam Beiler initiated a redesign and rebranding.
GoTo Foods (formerly Focus Brands) is an American company that currently owns the Schlotzsky's, Carvel, Cinnabon, Moe's Southwest Grill, McAlister's Deli, Auntie Anne's and Jamba brands.
Both Cinnabon and Auntie Anne's are part of Focus Brands, the Atlanta-based operator owned by Roark Capital, the private equity group trying to buy Subway.
There are many stories about the origin of this German tradition, but there is a common thought that the pretzel itself is fashioned after the way in which German Monks prayed with their arms crossed in front of their chests.
The Catholic Church claims that a monk in Northern Italy created pretzels by using left-over dough that was originally made for Lent. He created the signature pretzel shape because it was meant to symbolize a child praying with his arms folded across his chest.
They believe the pretzel shape represents the holy trinity, the three holes representing the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Soft pretzels using a simple recipe of only flour, water, and salt were used during Lent when Christians were not permitted to eat eggs, lard, or any dairy products.
Introduction: My name is Chrissy Homenick, I am a tender, funny, determined, tender, glorious, fancy, enthusiastic person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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