Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | S | Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery

Artists at work: Lawler Foods, Ltd.'s new expansion will feature state-of-the-art automation. Its existing production facilities, however, combine mass production with the art of baking to create homemade-style desserts with that handmade look.

Article Excerpt
Building a masterpiece takes a lot of talent. That's why Lawler Foods, Ltd. spends a lot of time training its employees on the fine art of cake decorating.

"We do a lot of hand work here to create complex, multi-layer cakes and other products that are difficult to do, but they separate ourselves from the competition," notes Mike Lawler, vice president of operations at the Humble, Texas-based operation.

"We put in the extra effort that gives our premium products an artistic look," he adds. "We do not sell value products. We produce quality products that our customers buy over and over again."

Even though Lawler's original bakery has been remodeled within the last five years, little has changed, especially when it comes to creating desserts that look like pieces of art. Although the 57,000-sq-ft. building has new coolers, mixers, wall paneling and a dishwasher room, the operation is designed for versatility because it produces anywhere from 12 to 25 different products a day. Some specialty desserts contain so many components that they take multiple stages and more than a dozen people to produce them en masse.

During Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery's visit, for instance, a team of bakers and cake decorators lined up to create a double-layer chocolate cake with chocolate mousse and chocolate chips in the filling, chocolate ganache icing, a chocolate drizzle topping and chocolate bits that had recently been shaved from a large chocolate block. Later that day, an afternoon crew would package the product in boxes, apply code dates and seals, and build pallets before tagging them and sending the items for storage in the bakery's holding freezer.

Currently, Lawler Foods operates two semi-automated bakeries and is installing state-of-the-art production lines in a third building that will open in June to streamline its operations and allow the company to more efficiently produce some of its less complex products and portion-controlled items.

Although automation is on the horizon in Building 3, the first two buildings will...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!