Capturing Culinary Quality in the Plant

Changing equipment may be the last resort. “It would be easier for someone with a product to find a different co-packer,” says Schy. “If you had a huge order and they brought in a piece of equipment, you would have to guarantee sales.”

Would the co-packer that footed the equipment bill for Caribou Coffee’s French Toast Muffin have done the same for a smaller concern, says a 40-unit chain? “Yes and no,” says Stiles. “A smaller outfit pretty much has to take what the manufacturer makes for them. If you asked them to make a French Toast Muffin for you, they wouldn’t put in R&D time and buy equipment for you.”

However, Stiles adds that the small operator might be able to purchase the equipment and strike a deal with the co-packer to buy it from them for a nickel a muffin. “But that might take years to pay off that way,” says Stiles.

In his early days with Caribou, Stiles recalls having to “sell” manufacturers on doing business with a relatively unknown 120-unit regional chain. “Now, closing in on 500 stores, any manufacturer would jump to have the business,” he says.

AN ECONOMY OF SCALE 

Of course, in some instances, plants are totally customized to serve the needs of a large customer, and no needs go unmet. That’s the case with the Chicago-based East Balt Commissary, a plant for the McDonald’s Corporation, Oak Brook, IL, that produces baked goods for about 900 stores.

East Balt began baking for McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc in the mid-1950s. Always insistent on quality, innovation and productivity, he sought a partner that could keep up with his fast-growing chain.

Before this partnership, equipment did not exist to provide the precision, quality and throughput McDonald’s required of a supplier. “Buns used to be made the way your mother would make them at home,” notes J. Hugh “Chef J” McEvoy, CRC, CEC, Cd.R, director of product innovation, East Balt, Inc., Chicago.