Herman’s Modern Bakery eyes Guam expansion under new leadership

07/10/2025 - Herman’s Modern Bakery general manager Joseph Lee Pan Guerrero is now at the helm of the CNMI’s oldest bakery and revealed the company’s plans to open a branch in Guam and perhaps even expand to Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia.

“Herman's vision right now is in the planning stages of opening up in Guam. We do market our product with the biggest outlet in Guam, which is Kmart... We've been successful with what we're doing in Guam. And hopefully, we want to expand and set up a small-scale bakery in Guam to provide the daily fresh sweet bread, which we are known for,” he told Marianas Press.

The former lawmaker said the longer-term plan is to open a bakery in Pohnpei once more frequent flights to the islands are realized.

“We're looking at venturing to our neighboring islands of Micronesia. We've been open-ended with welcoming Herman's to find a source there to sell our products because they've been asking us, ‘can you please...’ A good example in Pohnpei, family members who are coming here checking on other family members are asking, ‘when is Herman’s going to start selling your products in Pohnpei?’”

However, Guerrero said complicating their ambitious pursuit of the FSM market is the lack of regular flights to Pohnpei; unlike in the 1980s, when Herman’s products were readily available in Pohnpei and even Yap due to regular flights by Continental Airlines.  

“You have to factor those things in, and our product is highly perishable. We need to determine the timeline from here, shipping it to Guam, then from Guam to Pohnpei. What's the shelf life of the product? That we need to make necessary adjustments in our baking ingredients as well, how much preservative do we put in just to accommodate that, which we don't want to do because most of our big products have less preservative because we want what it is before and what it is now. So, the plan is there; setting it in motion is the key. We need to identify how to move this because it's not an easy product to just send out, and hopefully, it gets there in one piece, as handling is always an issue with the airlines. You want to receive a product that's fresh, not squashed, as they say,” he said.

As for Rota, Herman’s products are currently available at Island A-Heart, which is owned by Guerrero’s brother, Juan Pan, and they do have a property on the island where a future branch could someday arise. On Tinian, Herman’s products are sold at JC Café as well as local groceries.

Guerrero also addressed his ascension to the company’s top post after being named general manager last Jan. 21, taking the place of Michael Guerrero.

“I took the position because there are a lot of things that we need to make changes in here. There's always room for improvement at Herman's, and one of the things that we kind of take lightly is that we have outgrown ourselves. Herman’s continued to expand, and we needed to make necessary improvements in our facility, not only in our facility, our equipment, and try to improve the retention of local employees,” he said.

One of his main objectives is to make sure that Herman’s contract workers will eventually be replaced by skilled local employees who are in the baking industry, with the CNMI-Only Transitional Worker Program about to end in 2029.

“We need to revisit where improvement is needed, and one of our major needs is to improve our bakery. We kind of had neglected it and put aside major improvements when needed to cut costs, but now's the time, even though with this bad economy, we're trying to see how we can improve and bring back the quality of the products that we bake, and sell to our customers.”

While the next generation of Guerreros will have to wait their turn to run the company, the current general manager assured them that their time will come. In fact, he said he will be grooming his heir apparent from the many nephews, nieces, and even grandchildren of the clan.

“Yes, we still have members of the next generation working for us. We're gradually going to groom them, and hopefully, they'll see the importance of how to run a bakery. It's not just about being given a position and not expected to learn the trade.”

On the current economic crisis, Guerrero said laying off workers will always be their last resort, as Herman’s will more likely cut down the number of bakery products they deliver to stores and their own outlets—and perhaps reduce work hours—rather than let go of people, who he said are the company’s No. 1 resource.

Asked what the government can do to improve the economy, he said it starts and ends with the CNMI’s only economic driver—the tourism industry—and if that doesn’t work, diversify the economy.

“[We] cannot be dependent on tourism. We need to diversify, we need to find another avenue to improve, because tourists are not going to come back if we don't make the necessary improvements.”

As a former congressman, Guerrero said he always emphasized the importance of making the CNMI as appealing as possible to tourists.

“We're spending millions and millions of dollars trying to bring in tourists, doing outreach in Korea and Japan, but it's not working. We have to identify the key problem here in the CNMI. We have a big issue here in the CNMI, and that is to keep our islands clean and our CNMI clean, and have a lot of activities.”

He even suggested that the Marianas Visitors Authority market the Northern Islands as a pristine escape for nature lovers. Unfortunately, he said this plan has been hindered by the lack of accessible transportation to Gani.

Guerrero then shared that the 81-year-old bakery wouldn’t have achieved the success it attained without the hard work of the company’s treasured employees.

“Without Herman's employees, Herman’s is not where it's going to be. It's the employees who move Herman's, the employees—the backbone of the company. It's not management. Management is only the guidance of the company, and it's the employees who move the bakery, which produces its products, which sells our products, and they're so adamant that they want to be part of Herman’s, and we want to emphasize to our employees that you are Herman’s. It's not the management; it's always the key that I emphasize with our employees that you are Herman’s.”

Report by Mark Rabago