bake - October 2016 - 16

equipment

Add Breadth to Your Bread Sales
Before you buy your next bread slicer, there are a number of

Offering three different sliced sourdoughs in one loaf is a great

important questions to ask prior to making this investment.

example of what may appeal to a lot of customers, Gallagher

What's your daily production volume? Loaf size? Hard crust vs.

says. "The sky is the limit to reimagine how bread is sold," he

soft crust? Slice thickness? On-demand slicing vs. wholesale? And

says. "Or make a sandwich with a certain kind of bread and offer

most important, what are the goals of your sliced bread program?

a half loaf of the same bread for the customer to take home.
Simple things like that can add a lot of breadth to the business."

"It's all about knowing your bread, knowing your customers
and knowing what kind of in-store experience you're looking to

Variable Thickness Options

offer," says Joe Gallagher, food equipment business leader for

JAC-Machines recently unveiled a compact variable thickness

Oliver Packaging & Equipment Company.

slicer, which takes up less space than a frame slicer because of
its vertical cutting system.

For starters, a frame slicer is more suitable when you have a
range of needs, while a variable thickness slicer does the job

Paul Molyneux of JAC-Machines points out that slicer innova-

when you need to produce different slice thickness. Or perhaps

tion has come a long way since the days of using a lever to

you are looking for a self-service model to appeal to customers

push the bread through the slicer. The following are examples:

"who are looking for a premium assortment of bread but not
looking for a relationship with the store," says Gallagher.

* no more exposed blades, as JAC slicers are supplied with
an automatic safety cover

Yvonne Johnson, director of marketing at Oliver, recommends
that any retail bakery owner take a hard look at the bigger
picture to plot your needs in a best-case scenario.
"They need to look at the big picture. Can this slicer do every-

* state-of-the-art safety features, interlocking doors, safety
covers and photo eye sensors
* much quieter than older models

thing I want to do as I expand my product offerings?" she says.
"Don't buy based on what they are doing at this moment. Buy
based on what they envision they want to do."

* with customer self-service slicing a growing market, JAC
has a range of self-service slicers including variable thickness models

Bakers sometimes overlook the fact that a new piece of
equipment can catapult your operation into proﬁtable new

Gallagher at Oliver says self-service is a growing trend,

directions.

particularly among younger customers who are looking
for a more ﬂuid shopping experience. New from Oliver, the

Retail bakeries, cafes and bread shops, for instance, may want

SimpleSlice Pro-Serve and Self-Serve on-demand bread

to consider selling multiple types of sliced bread in one bag to

slicers easily slice up to 18-inch long loaves, the largest

appeal to customers, especially the growing number of single-

capacity in the industry. The Pro-Serve model is used by

person or smaller households in America, who want more

bakery staff, while the Self-Serve model offers consumers a

variety but are less inclined to buy a whole loaf.

simple and quick slicing experience. 

16 < OCT 2016 | bakemag.com
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bake - October 2016

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