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Demolition of Orlando’s iconic Merita Bread building started Wednesday morning. Drivers may remember the smell of bread that used to entice them while passing by on I-4. Mike Maudlin is the general manager of Maudlin International Trucks, the new property owner.

He says the old bread building had to go to make way for his company.

“We were limited in our ability to grow with the current location so we elected to purchase an adjacent property. It’s literally just down the street maybe 250, 300 yards and we’re going to be more than tripling our size, actually quadrupling our size,” said Maudlin.

Merita Bread went out of business in 2012. The company donated the old neon Merita sign to the Morse Museum of American Art.