Honors Alumni Business Feature: Stinson Breads

A steady stream of people spills out of the unassuming red door of a shop in downtown Opelika. Inside, an eclectic assortment of people both young and old wait to purchase fresh bread, pastries and sandwiches from Matthew and Anna Claire Stinson, owners of Stinson Breads.

The bakery has become a community hub for area residents who yearn for the European bread and pastry culture that is usually absent in the deep South. Their baking methods are traditional, yet as distinctively southern as the railroad town they call home.

Their business model is strictly community first, as is evident by the number of customers leaving the business with a bag of goodies and an unmistakably uplifted demeanor.

Stinson, an Auburn Honors graduate, doesn’t have a background in baking or entrepreneurship — in fact, his undergraduate degree is in horticulture— but his attitude toward learning is purely Honors College.

The Honors Experience

Stinson graduated from Auburn as an Honors Scholar in 2018 with a degree in horticulture for fruit and vegetable production and continued his formal education with a master’s degree in plant pathology in 2022. He originally joined the Honors College as a way to make classes more enjoyable for himself — “and the priority registration and smaller class sizes are a bonus,” added Stinson.

Like many Honors students, Stinson enjoyed the ability to add interesting electives to his course load. Some of his standout experiences included research and sustainability courses, which he paired, somewhat unexpectedly, with his horticulture studies.

“In Honors the challenges are the benefits, and having the ability to challenge yourself is what makes Honors so special,” Stinson said. “You can make classes more engaging and more enjoyable for you, and if you find something that is fulfilling — any experience — you can give yourself permission to do that, even if it’s not on your expected path.”

Stinson has certainly given himself permission to take a path he originally had not planned for his career, pivoting from a first job in higher education, to tech development and now to the world of entrepreneurship and baking.

 

From Scholar to Entrepreneur

Honors students aren’t just learning the material in front of them for a given class; they are learning transferable skills. During his non‑required research course, Stinson admitted to a steep learning curve.

“I was contributing to a soon‑to‑be‑published body of work, so I had to pull my own weight and learn something that I had no prior experience with,” Stinson said.

This desire to learn is inherent in Stinson and is evident in the challenges he has sought out after graduation from Auburn. He credits his Honors education with fostering his curiosity and ongoing wish to learn.

Precision and creativity are required in baking and in business ownership. Both also involve thinking in a micro and macro sphere. For Stinson, his Honors sustainability course helped build his skills in planning and systems management.

“I found a lot of overlap when thinking of that class with what I’m doing now,” Stinson said. “Here at the bakery people are mixing dough, shaping bread, washing dishes and running the storefront. If I didn’t have a basic knowledge of system management from that course, it would have been very difficult for me to view this bakery as a whole.”

Looking through the bakery window, Stinson pointed out the number of workers completing different aspects of the job — taking the product from raw materials to the sales counter — but all working together as one system.

How a Baker Was Made

Stinson and his wife, Anna Claire Stinson ’17,’18, both have parents who are self‑employed, and he credits them for the couple’s entrepreneurial spirit. Early in their relationship, the couple discussed what the future might hold.

“It was actually Anna Claire’s idea to open a bakery and be her own boss, and it was my job to make those dreams come true for her,” Stinson said.

During a honeymoon trip to Europe, the couple fell in love with the many bakeries they visited, and they decided that they wanted to bring something similar to the Opelika community.

“They have bakeries in Europe like we [in the South] have churches and Waffle Houses®,” Stinson joked.

The couple did what they do best: they started to learn. Anna Claire took an online culinary course, and it was during her sourdough class that Matthew’s interest in baking truly piqued. As fate would have it, he was culturing yeast in a lab during his master’s program — perfectly aligning with the art of making sourdough.

At first, the couple made bread for friends and family for free, and their first official customer was Matthew’s lab partner. From there, the company grew by word of mouth. Soon the newly formed bakers found themselves at full capacity — using their home oven as well as ovens from local retailers. At that point, their beloved hobby crossed the threshold into a career.

In April 2024, Stinson Breads opened in its current building on N. Railroad Avenue in Opelika, Alabama, happily serving a community in need.

“We are trying to be a bakery for the people who live here,” Stinson said. “We want to appeal to college students, the local foodies and your grandmother.”

 

A Community Treasure

Community support is paramount to Stinson. As he explained, “We are blessed to be able to do this, and every day we ask ourselves how we can better support our community.”

According to Stinson, having the support of the community is key regardless of what you are doing or selling as a business owner. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce sites that, this type of support fosters a vibrant community, by increasing job opportunities, building strong, loyal customer relationships, and creating sustainable and walkable neighborhoods.

This community-centered approach shapes the store’s approach to customer relations, where the Stinsons and their staff strive to make sure everyone who enters the bakery leaves happy. These results of efforts are clear in the business’s growing popularity and highly committed customers.

“I’m obsessed with this place,” said a patron as they walked out the doors of Stinson Breads. In the customer’s bag was a loaf of brioche (a new product), cinnamon rolls and an olive oil cake — but they really wanted a brownie. Stopping in front of the store, the customer turned to ask when brownies would be back on the menu. Stinson immediately called the day manager over to discuss the logistics of ensuring brownies were always available.

“You have to listen and value your patrons and community,” Stinson said.

Stinson not only ensures his customers are happy but believes deeply in a business owner’s responsibility to the community — a belief he demonstrates through action. He currently serves on the Opelika Main Street board, the Opelika Chamber board and a nonprofit foundation board. As a clear sign of the business’s success, the bakery also recently won the Alabama Retailer of the Year Award in the emerging business category, recognized for sales growth, innovation, community and customer service.

Advice and Future Plans

Stinson has a few pieces of advice for Honors students. The first is to seek out opportunities.

“If you have the capacity to do it — then do it,” Stinson said. He added, “Honors College is what you make of it. Learn how to operate in different scenarios, make yourself uncomfortable and maximize your time in Honors.”

His second piece of advice is to be a lifelong learner. At the beginning of Stinson Breads, the couple devoured books on how to make bread.

“I would buy a new book just in case it had two new paragraphs about a technique,” Stinson said.

The couple not only learned how to make bread but continued their education by learning how to run a business, then how to educate and uplift employees. Now they are working on  expanding operations: soon, the company will be moving into a 4,000‑square‑foot building in downtown Opelika.

“There is nothing else like it in the state,” Stinson said.

The new location will allow the bakery to increase production and create more space for the community to enjoy its breads and pastries.

As Stinson reached behind the counter to grab a morning bun for a customer, he reiterated his message to Honors students: “Seek out the stuff you are interested in. Be unapologetic, even if it doesn’t line up with what you are studying. If you believe there is value in it, then there is.”