Baking & Snack - May 2019 - 38

PAN PEPIN

production because it identifies the formulas for the
sponge and the dough, which prevent confusion as to
which ingredients go into each of the Shaffer mixers -
one 1,600-lb for the sponge and two 2,400-lb for the
dough.
All ingredients are pneumatically conveyed on the
Shick Esteve system, in which each recipe is loaded,
and progress can be tracked on Allen-Bradley control
screens. "On the other line, we needed to use bags by
Three varieties of hand," said Victor Rodriguez, director of operations.
bread are made on "But now, you can put the quantity you need in the
this one-pan line. formula and just use one button. That's it. It's easy, it

goes faster, and you have a lot of consistency with the
final product. It's the same, every time."
Another major advancement in the new facility is
the AMF fully automatic fermentation room. "This
was a big deal for us," Mr. Somoza attested, noting
that tripling capacity would have introduced an exorbitant amount of labor to move the troughs. "We
were used to dealing with about 1,500-lb dough sizes
on our other lines. Now, we're talking about 2,400 or
2,500 lb. It's about employee safety because you don't
want to move those heavy troughs, but we're also
much more consistent."

In times of trouble, the baking industry rallies
Nine months into construction on its new
52,000-sq-ft facility, Pan Pepin survived the wrath
of Hurricanes Irma and Maria, practically without
a scratch. In fact, the bakery was one of the first to
resume production on the island and was able to
not only continue filling orders but also provide
bread as part of the relief efforts.
In the meantime, many industry companies
jumped on board to offer help where they could,
one being US bakery, with whom Pan Pepin has
had a long-standing relationship. "Within two
days, I had a call asking, 'Do you need us to produce bread in Florida and ship it over to you?'" recalled Mario Somoza, Pan Pepin president. "That
was completely unexpected but definitely welcomed. Thankfully, we didn't need to, but that's
just one example of the many calls we received."
Despite the outpouring of offers to help, Mr.
Somoza explained that the limited resources on the
island made it difficult for anyone outside those essential to the relief efforts to get in and participate.
So, instead, BEMA found a more unobtrusive
way to help. Kerwin Brown, BEMA president and
CEO, promoted a GoFundMe page, where the
association's members could make monetary contributions to help workers who suffered personal
losses such as damage to their homes.
"Kerwin was focused on 'How can we help your
people, your employees who suffered losses?'"
Mr. Somoza said. "So, we started a YouCaring.com
page, and people could donate to that with funds
toward helping our employees. And the company
matched that dollar for dollar." Between donations
from BEMA members and bakery partners such
as Milton's, along with Pan Pepin's dollar-for-dollar
match, $100,000 was raised to help employees
who were affected by the hurricanes.

38 Baking & Snack May 2019 / www.bakingandsnack.com

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