Baking & Snack - June 2024 - 26

JTM FOODS
function in JTM that second moat, that thing that differentiates
us from other folks. "
Another differentiator is the company's set of values and
how they work to make that a part of everything they do.
" As you saw on the signs when you came in the building,
respect, trust, teamwork, accountability, ownership
and continuous improvement was a huge milestone for
us and those values are gigantic to the entire organization, "
Amboyer said.
These are values that the business adopted when
Pooley joined the company, and he said it turned JTM
from a manufacturing facility into more of a collaborative
community.
" The cultural shift at JTM has been a big part of us being
able to produce more, to produce more efficiently, to
reduce waste, to allow people to grow their careers and
be more successful, " Pooley elaborated. " All of those elements
are an important part of being a good community
citizen as well as being a good viable business. That set of
values has played a significant role in evolving a culture. "
The workforce and labor pool available in Wichita
was an attraction for JTM to locate there, Hinsdale said.
" You can build a nice facility and have all the nice
equipment you want in it, but you still need folks to operate
the machinery, " he said.
The Wichita facility currently runs one shift five days
a week and has about 25 employees. The new line is expected
to add another 10 employees, but JTM is hoping
to employ 200 to 250 once the plant is fully operational.
JTM employs 270 at its Erie facility and 81 at McKinney,
Texas-based Cookies-n-Milk, the company it acquired
in September 2022 that makes edible cookie dough,
baked cookies, brownies and donut holes.
JTM's Wichita plant has the capacity to make 358 of the 2-oz pies
each minute, or more than 170,000 pies in an eight-hour shift.
Facilities for JTM Foods
tripled in short order
Just a month after JTM Foods
broke ground for its Wichita, Kan.,
facility, the company acquired
McKinney, Texas-based Cookiesn-Milk,
which is the largest producer
of edible cookie dough in
the United States and also makes
baked cookies, brownies and donut
holes. About 70% of production is
edible cookie dough.
" We saw it as a category that was
in many ways similar to handheld
snack pies in that it was a category
that was underdeveloped, " said
Monty Pooley, JTM president and
chief executive officer. " It was a
category that harkens back to mom's
homemade cookie dough and one
we felt complemented our existing
line to the extent that we could bring
this new solution to customers. "
Pooley said he saw the business
as one that had done a great job of
developing the product but knew
that JTM could expand its reach.
" Those relationships we have
with customers in the industry and
our ability to take this new idea
really allowed us to accelerate that
business, " he said. " We knew there
was a lot of upside. "
The edible cookie dough is sold
in nuggets in a cup to make it an
easy grab-and-go snack. They are
sold at convenience stores and the
company is ramping up existing
sales at grocery stores, said Larry
Bilello, chief commercial officer.
" The edible cookie dough was
initially sold in buckets or containers,
but spoonable isn't convenient
or shareable, " he explained.
" Growth in the category is poppable
nuggets. "
26 Baking & Snack June 2024 / www.bakingbusiness.com
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Baking & Snack - June 2024

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