Death of Corporate Sponsor Forces CU Merger

OAKLAND, Calif. – Arrow CU, which served employees of the well-known Mother’s Cookies until the bakery shut down in 2006, said last week it has agreed to merge into nearby Spectrum FCU.

The May 2006 closing of the Mother's Cookies bakery and its distribution center decimated the small credit union. It ended 2007 with a $30,000 loss, $2.7 million in assets and 482 members, down from $5 million in assets and 738 members at the end of 2005.

After the closing, Arrow had been located in the plant for 58 years and had to scramble to find a new location and start paying rent.

Arrow was chartered in 1949 to serve employees of Mother's Cookies, which had operated in Oakland for 92 years. In 2000 the cookie plant became part of Archway & Mother's Cookie Co. In 2005, those brands were bought by the private equity firm Catterton Partners, which decided to combine Mother's Oakland bakery operations into other company-owned bakeries in Ohio and Canada.

San Francisco-based Spectrum FCU has $136 million in assets.