Over the past year, shipments of pre-frozen, store-branded breads to Hawai'i have quietly increased. They are thawed when they get to the Islands, then trucked to supermarkets. Unlike some foods, breads are not required to be labeled as pre-frozen.

Last week, Times Super Market stores started carrying Cascade Pride, a pre-frozen brand, in addition to its regular brands.

"It's a very, very competitively priced bread and it's very good quality," said Roger Godfrey, president of Times. "We looked at the quality and taste, and the method used in handling the bread."

Six-year-old Hawai'i Foodservice Alliance sells Cascade Pride. Company founder Chad Buck says he started the company when he saw a need for lower prices, and growth has been "enormous."

A loaf of pre-frozen Cascade Pride sandwich bread sold recently for $1.99, while Island Fresh loaves from Love's Bakery sold for $3.19 each, and Love's White sold for $2.09. Both Love's brands were baked locally.

Buck said he's contracting with eight Mainland bakeries to bake bread for Hawai'i, up from four a year ago. The bread is sold to more than 40 retailers statewide.

Fresh-baked breads are increasingly fighting for shelf space with pre-frozen brands. Household names that come into Hawai'i frozen include Sara Lee, King's Hawaiian, Thomas' English Muffin, Svenhard's, Columbo, Dolly Madison, La Brea, EURO-Bake and Hostess products such as Twinkies.

Pleasanton, Calif.-based Safeway is ramping up the number of Mrs. Wright's, OvenJoy and Northwest Coast breads offered, which are baked and frozen at its own bakeries on the West Coast before making their way to the Islands.

The supermarket chain moved its private label distribution business from Love's Bakery to Hawai'i Foodservice recently because the latter can handle more capacity, said Safeway spokesman Alexander Winslow.

"It's a popular item, it's a good value and it's priced quite favorably," Winslow said.

Pre-frozen bread is cutting into the sales of Hawai'i bakeries, who find the prices tough to match because they have higher labor and land costs and cannot bake on as big a scale as the Mainland bakeries, which lowers per-unit expenses.

When asked about pre-frozen bread, Mike Walters, chief executive of Love's Bakery, said: "We're going to continue to provide a competitive marketing strategy for our name brands. Together with professional distribution services, we'll continue to provide quality food products baked fresh in Hawai'i."

Walters said even though Safeway shifted part of its business away, the supermarket still buys products from Love's. He said the lost business accounted for less than 3 percent of sales at the state's largest bakery.

Walters said Love's Bakery mostly bakes its breads fresh for same-day or next-day delivery to retailers. Their brands include Home Pride, Islands Finest, Pillsbury, Country Hearth, Roman Meal, Wonder, Milton's, Holsum and Love's breads.

Love's Bakery does freeze breads for sale to restaurants. It also may bake enough hamburger or hotdog buns in advance and freeze them to meet consumer demand during holidays, but most of its breads are fresh, Walters said.

Hawai'i is not unique in getting frozen bread, Buck said. Consumers in many other states also get pre-frozen bread. One notable exception is California, where there's a big enough population to consume vast quantities of fresh- baked breads.

Buck says he didn't realize how much of a threat Cascade Pride was to local bakeries until an industry executive told him to leave the business.

"He said, 'You need to sell out. You need to take your money and run. You're driving down prices,' " Buck recalled. "That makes me sleep well at night knowing I'm bringing lower prices. The consumer takes such a beating."