Baking&Snack - May 2011 - 24

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“We’re building an organization that has size and scale, but the ability to be fast and more flexible than our customers are with their internal plants,” explained Dwayne Hughes, vice-president, supply chain, for the Downers Grove, IL-based company. “Our vision is to align ourselves with the premier food companies with our fast and flexible operation.” Hearthside’s facilities range from a 60,000-sq-ft breakfast, granola and snack bar plant in Grand Rapids to the nation’s second-largest bakery in McComb, housing cookie and cracker ovens that are among the largest in the world. In addition to its large scale of production, its operations include flexible downstream packaging lines, ranging from bulk packing and rigid containers to single-serving bags and resealable pouches. To become increasingly nimble, the company also operates a fabrication plant in Ohio, where it can modify any piece of equipment to add production versatility and create custom-designed products. Addi-

▲ Don Wood (left), MS cutter operator, and Rich Roscoe, site supervisor of the H-4 bakery, review key performance indicators for the cereal bar line. tionally, much of its production and packaging equipment is modular in design and comes on wheels to allow quick line setup or to reconfigure an operation to produce a new product. “We have a breadth and scale of businesses — particularly in baking — that you don’t find under one roof, and those capabilities presented to a branded partner are immense,” noted Brian McNamara, vice-president, sales and marketing. “We might not be fast as the oneplant, mom-and-pop operation, but we are a lot faster than companies approaching $1 billion in size.” In many ways, Hearthside’s business model involves resetting expectations on how the confidential world of contract manufacturing operates, according to John Weller, vice-president, operations, Grand Rapids. “Contract manufacturing was always thought about on a project-by-project basis,” he said. “You get in and get out with low cost. It was temporary. There were no programs and no sustainability of business. What Hearthside brought to the table was a strategic focus to the co-manufacturing world. The whole idea is to have a plan and strategy behind business growth and leveraging with our partners to continue that growth. It’s not a quick in-and-out, fiveand-dime approach to business.” With a focus on lean management, the company operates like a typical entrepreneurial manufacturer that can make quick decisions despite the operation’s large size, according to Mr. Hughes. “We’re not either one, but a combination of the two,” he said. “We’re entrepreneurial, but we’re large enough with the capabilities to play with the big guys. We’re a hybrid of both.” Instead of focusing on selling its services, Mr. McNamara noted, Hearthside emphasizes how it can align its capabilities and manage its production flow to fulfill inven-

Filling up the Pipeline
To better partner with its customers, Hearthside Food Solutions starts at the beginning of the new product process. In fact, the company operates a test kitchen with laboratory ovens, proofers, fryers and seasoning applicators, as well as a pilot plant that helps product developers take a formula and adapt it from bench to fullscale production. Hearthside also has a package development department that works with its customers’ engineers and designers to test various packaging materials and formats so that products can be sold in a wide variety of distribution channels. At this time, the new product development pipeline remains so strong that the company’s laboratory services are currently booked two months in advance, noted Dwayne Hughes, vice-president, supply chain. Hearthside provides this service, even if the product ultimately is made at a facility other than its own. “Although customers will develop products in our facility, it doesn’t mean we’ll be the ones making them for the shelf,” Mr. Hughes explained. “Some of our customers will come in and say they’re trialing this new product for their internal production needs, and we know that upfront, but we’re still willing to provide them with that development service.”

BAKING & SNACK / May 2011

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Baking&Snack - May 2011

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