Baking & Snack - October 2015 - 33

Keeping a clean house
In a co-manufacturer's world, audits and surprise
visits are the status quo. It's not just customer
audits from entities such as AIB International. "All of
our customers' quality control people come into the
bakery personally," said Byron Goulding, president,
Oak State Products.
"Then we get audited by AIB International, and we
are BRC compliant, Grade A," he continued. And it's
not always customers popping in. "Last week, we had
a new customer audit, and about 15 minutes after
they came in, we had a surprise audit from another
customer," said Steve Goulding, Oak State CEO.
A number of large clients and a high standard
for compliance might seem overwhelming, but it
actually works to Oak State's advantage. Its large
clients have strict standards; by maintaining compliance with the strictest set of rules, the bakery by
default meets most others' standards, including the
government.
"We have a diverse number of clients, and they
all have different requirements. By meeting all
those demands, we never have to worry about the
government walking through the door because
we're ready," Steve said.
The company also practices consistent selfauditing and documentation, as well as corrective
actions for incidents as minor as leaving a tool on a
ledge or as major as allergen controls.
Byron compared it to keeping a clean house. "We
are constantly ready for audits," he said. "It's not
like calling a maid to clean the house for a lastminute guest; you're always ready to have someone
drop by at a moment's notice."

To consistently get the proper bake and meet strict customer specifications, Oak State must strike the perfect balance between dough
and oven temperatures and adjust them to seasonal Midwest
climate conditions.
next six months, we'll be launching new products and filling up that warehouse with all the
raw materials and packaging to support those
products."
"That's what saves you as you get bigger,"
Steve added. "Adding the warehouse saves you
having to do things like use trucks for storage
and then have to pull a truck in to get something off it and pull it out again."
From warehouse to packaging to shifting consumer demands, Oak State stands ready to break
up the next bottleneck and increase production
and efficiency. The trick is "to predict where the
next bottleneck will be," Byron advised.
By investing strategically in the right areas of
the bakery, Oak State can continue to serve these
large branded companies, which have a tendency
to be risk-averse. "We minimize risk for them,"
Byron said. "We offer a low-risk solution to
launch a cookie nationwide. In order to do that,
you have to have capacity to support three SKUs
in every supermarket across the country, while
having all your other resources available to innovate a new product for someone else."
Are the strategic investments and growth
plans worth it, especially when landing one
account can take years? Byron sums up that
answer quite clearly: "Once you have a customer, it's rare to lose it. Once they have you
qualified and you prove yourself, they just keep
coming back."

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