Baking & Snack - October 2022 - 26

THE GOOD BREAD CO.
" WHEN YOU'RE IN THE WEEDS
DAY-TO-DAY, YOU DON'T HAVE AN
OPPORTUNITY TO TAKE A STEP
BACK AND SEE HOW MUCH OR HOW
QUICKLY THINGS HAVE CHANGED. "
Spiros Assimacopoulos, The Good Bread Co.
ing welcome and supported really helps retain new team
members, " Mr. Assimacopoulos explained. " You can't
just pass out aprons and expect a good result. "
He also cited another lesson in listening to his employees
about what they want. The Good Bread Co.
implemented a job rotation program, which has several
benefits in cross-training employees and keeping
people from growing bored with their work. Mr.
Assimacopoulos assumed it would be a slam dunk program.
He admitted he was wrong.
" Some team members felt they were being punished
and preferred to remain in the role they were comfortable
with, " he said. " We learned very quickly to give
team members a voice in the process. "
As the company develops its workforce, Rich Tommy,
director of operations, said they've begun internal interviews.
Each employee is asked about their strengths,
weaknesses and career aspirations. The information
from these interviews will be invaluable as The Good
Bread Co. looks to develop future leaders in the company.
And it helps employees see that the company is listening
to them and interested in their success.
Touring the continuous change
The Good Bread Co. has three makeup lines, one tunnel
oven and three packaging lines, with plans to install
a second tunnel oven. Since 2019, The Good Bread Co.
took over the space next door to make room for the tunnel
ovens, expanding to 61,000 square feet.
To keep up with the growing business, the East Bakery
has taken on several capital investments in addition to
the tunnel oven. A second BB Impiati silo was added to
hold another 77,000 lbs of flour, which is delivered multiple
times a week. With the addition of another makeup
line, a refurbished Adamatic line called Line No. 2, The
Good Bread Co. had to invest in a second Koenig roll
line and twin twist mixer.
" When the operation is grown in an incremental fashion,
with several physical touchpoints with the product,
it is not always clear where bottlenecks will occur, " Mr.
Assimacopoulos explained. " As some parts of the process
improve, they exacerbate bottlenecks downstream, especially
processes requiring a high degree of manual work. "
The two Koenig mixers create 525-lb batches. The first
was installed in 2019 and the second in 2021. Both machines'
twin twist construction gets dough developed in
10 to 11 minutes. Four Bertuetti mixers handle the rest
and mixing of sourdough and biga.
Minor and micro ingredients are scaled by hand still
while flour and water are automatically scaled and addAfter
installing three automated makeup lines, The Good Bread
Co. added a third mixer to keep up with increased throughput.
26 Baking & Snack October 2022 / www.bakingbusiness.com
http://www.bakingbusiness.com
Baking & Snack - October 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Baking & Snack - October 2022
