Baking & Snack - March 2018 - 40

MORE THAN A BAKERY

Space fosters communication and breaks down perceived
delineations between the "manufacturing" and "corporate" aspects of a baking company. No office is permanent; instead, each person is assigned a "common cart" for
personal belongings, and every few months office assignments change. People only need to take their common
cart to the next location. And work space is not limited
to assigned offices, either. This open environment allows
people to do business in common areas or in the "cove," a
quiet corner where people can nestle into reclining pods
while taking in a view of the hills.
Oftentimes, Mr. Quigg can be found working in the
most open spaces. "I tend to grab my laptop and sit out in
the break area to work," he said. "I can be productive while
I interact with people. The whole point is to spend time and
enjoy the people you're working with. It's good for business
to mix things up and get the relationships percolating."
Gray Construction, the Lexington, KY, firm hired for
the design-build project, understood the company's emphasis on a shared experience inside this space. Because

the bakery's strict food safety practices make it cumbersome to leave and re-enter the building during a shift, the
Family Space was designed to bring a bit of the outside in.
Mr. Quigg took inspiration from the Clif Bar Baking
Company of Twin Falls' use of biophilia, the concept of
bringing elements of nature to an indoor setting. The
entire west-facing wall in the Family Space is glass, so
everyone can take in the majestic Kentucky landscape
while working, eating lunch, having a company-wide
"Family Meeting" or blowing off steam at the pingpong table. "We never wanted offices with windows,"
Mr. Quigg said. "Windows are not for one person in an
office; windows are to share."
More Than A Bakery was designed to function in a
similar fashion to its organizational structure, which
isn't so much hierarchical but more reminiscent of the
rings inside a tree trunk. At the center are the cookies
and crackers, and the people encircle them based on
physical proximity to the products. As the "rings" move
outward, people are identified not only by their closeness to the cookies but also by the level of support they
provide the ring inside.
Under this mindset, every aspect of this bakery ultimately revolves around the food.

Protecting the cookies
At More Than A Bakery, every decision is made mindfully around safe food production ... from the design
of the plant and its production line, all the way down to
writing, validating, modifying and training the standard
operating procedures.
With SQF Level III certification, the facility also is fully kosher as well as peanut- and tree-nut free, something
the bakery takes very seriously (you'll never see M&Ms
in a vending machine or a PB&J in a lunchbox at More
Than A Bakery).
Protecting the cookies is everyone's job, and it begins upon crossing the main threshold, the building's
only point of entry. Every day, all who enter - Family
Members, Raving Fan Customers or any other visitors
- must change into a captive uniform consisting of an
assigned shirt, pants and shoes before gaining access to
the "clean" side, which includes the Family Space as well
as the plant.
Once inside, hygienic zoning divides the building
into two types of spaces: post-bake, where one set of
captive uniform and shoes is worn, and pre-bake,
which requires its own specific hair nets and shoe covers and a clean-room "bunny suit" over the uniform.
This separation goes beyond typical food production
The automated ingredient handling system delivers bulk ingredients through a
pneumatic blower system up to the scale hoppers at the mixing station.

40 Baking & Snack March 2018 / www.bakingandsnack.com

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Baking & Snack - March 2018

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