N.Y. Bakery Firm to Buy TL Enterprises

TL Enterprises, an Agoura Hills-based publishing company best known for its recreational vehicle magazines, has agreed to be acquired by a New York bakery company for $40 million in cash.

American Bakeries, which owns 16 regional bakeries in the South, East and Midwest, is buying the firm from Richard Rouse, 40, and his brother Denis, 44. The two have owned the company outright since 1983, when they paid their father, Arthur, and other shareholders more than $6 million for the roughly 50% stake that they didn’t already hold.

The chairman of American Bakeries, E. Garrett Bewkes Jr., said Wednesday that he expects to complete the deal by August. Bewkes said American Bakeries wants to buy TL Enterprises largely because it is growing rapidly.

Largest RV Magazine

TL Enterprises, a closely held firm that projects $40 million in revenue for the fiscal year ending June 30, publishes Trailer Life, the nation’s largest RV magazine with a paid monthly circulation of 318,000.

The 30-year-old company also publishes Hi-Way Herald, a magazine distributed to nearly 500,000 members of its “Good Sam” club, a sort of American Automobile Assn. for RV owners. Its other publications are MotorHome, which has a circulation of 120,000; RV Business, a 20,000-circulation trade publication, and magazines on motorcycle touring, bicycling and photographic darkrooms.

Richard Rouse, who is to become a senior vice president with American Bakeries while continuing to run TL Enterprises as its president and chief executive, said the company’s headquarters will remain in Agoura Hills. He said the sale won’t affect the firm’s 170 employees, 140 of whom work at the headquarters.

American Bakeries, a $460-million-a-year company, has diversified over the last 18 months by buying recreation-related businesses. In January, 1985, the company bought Coast to Coast Resorts, a club for people who use membership campgrounds.