Baking & Snack - April 2024 - 22

MUFFIN TOWN
Left: A servo-driven depositor
precisely places muffin
batter into 12-cup pans on
the new production line in
the Lawrence facility.
Right: After robotic
depanning, muffins travel
toward the spiral cooler
and to flowwrapping
to create individually
packaged products.
Conventional wisdom would suggest that adding flexibility
to an automated operation inversely impacts efficiencies,
but that's not the case at the Lawrence plant.
Marcus Gomes, chief engineer at Muffin Town, noted
that changeovers on the new muffin line only take 5 to
10 minutes compared with upward of 2 hours on its existing
highly automated line. That enables the bakery to
shift production and schedule more frequent runs on
the new line, thus reducing overall downtime.
At Muffin Town, which touts itself as " America's
Premium Value Bakery, " quality is synonymous
with consistency, added Andre Andrade, director
of operations.
" Our formulas are based on healthy, good-for-you indulgence, "
he observed. " We're not creating shelf-stable,
long-lasting products. We don't make gourmet, foofy
muffins with drizzles and streusel and injected fillings
and everything under the sun that are 2,000 calories. We
make muffins that are more nutritious, premium and
consistently good. "
As a result, Anderson said, the bakeries rely on freezing
as a natural preservative.
" We're not producing additive-type, driven products, "
he said. " We make hearty, delicious products that are
best when they're thaw-and-serve. They may have a fiveto-seven-day
shelf life when thawed, which works great
for foodservice. We never built our business on a million
different ingredients in the deck. "
However, freezing all products doesn't mean baking
to build inventory.
" We'll get an order and turn it around in two weeks, "
22 Baking & Snack April 2024 / www.bakingbusiness.com
Anderson said. " We get one week to prepare to make it,
then bake it and freeze it for two days before we ship it. "
Making wise decisions
Geographically, Muffin Town's core market is up and
down the East Coast.
" When I think of growth, I think of it as coming from
the retail side of the business and with the in-store bakery
channel out West, " Anderson said. " There's an awful
lot of business out there. "
Piffer added the company has been expanding its online
initiatives with the Madeline's Pantry brand, following
up on the success of its business-to-consumer initiatives
that blossomed during the pandemic.
Operationally, the focus is on continuous improvement
at the SQF Level 2-certified Lawrence bakery.
" We're introducing new products regularly, so we
want to innovate every day and improve our operation
from a food safety standpoint by training our employees
to make sure we're doing better, " observed Radalys Luna,
Lawrence quality assurance manager.
Using quality key performance indicators, she added,
the department reviews customer feedback and ensures
any negative comments in the past do not repeat going
forward.
To address omnipresent labor challenges, Muffin
Town has focused on eliminating non-value-added jobs
that don't produce baked goods or contribute to the bottom
line, noted Veronica Gonzalez, Muffin Town's administrative
manager.
" We make sure everyone receives proper training, so
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