Baking & Snack - June 2006 - 45

We use it for nearly all of our sub
rolls, but it can do anything from
small banquet rolls to long Italian
breads," Mr. Liscio said.
The second line came over from
the previous facility. Headed up by
another W&P Tevimat dough divider, it sends dough balls through a Cinella Esparia overhead intermediate
proofer. The third line, primarily for
larger loaves, uses a new Adamatic

ᮡ The bakery's new bread forming line employs
the latest advances in sheeting and pressure
board technology.
divider. Line operators place the
moulded dough pieces from each
of these lines on cornmeal-coated
peel boards and into rolling racks.
Then, it's into the retarder. The next
day's production shift transfers the
racks to the proofer. Both retarder
and proofer are also new, supplied
by Reed Oven.
Most of Liscio's bread and rolls
bake in the new W&P/Gemini NUN
60-ft tunnel oven. The direct-fired
oven produces a light, crispy crust
while assuring a tender, moist crumb
for these products.
In its wholesale business, Liscio's
concentrates on serving the sandwich shop food culture unique to
its region. As Mr. Vilotti explained,
every sandwich store or chain has its
own requirements for the shape, size
and texture of the bread and rolls it

50 / BAKING & SNACK / June 2006

uses. Some make their sandwiches
with a higher proportion of bread;
others want smaller rolls so they can
show more meat. For this reason, the
company brought along its existing
four Reed revolving tray ovens and
two Sveba Dahlen rack ovens. "We
bake some products in the smaller
ovens to give different crust qualities
to them," Mr. Liscio explained. The
rack ovens handle pastries, cookies
and cake products.
Exiting the tunnel oven, the hot
breads and buns must cool before
they can be put into distribution
trays. If loaded right out of the oven,
these products would collapse. Instead, they travel along the new G&F
conveyor system and spiral cooler.
Ambient plant temperatures are sufficient for the spiral cooling conveyor
to do its job.
SECURE SHIPPING. Liscio's delivers
its bread and roll products loose in
sturdy, open-topped, low-walled corrugated trays, roughly the same configuration and size as other wholesale plastic delivery trays. "This type
of carton tray is a preference of this
region," Mr. Liscio said.
As bread and rolls come off the
spiral cooler, they are counted into
trays, stacked and moved to the staging area. Here, the trays are grouped
by delivery area and moved into
10 separate, locked holding cages,
one per dock door. This provides
security not only to outgoing goods
but also to plant operations.
The open-air shipping dock boasts
a roof to protect trucks and loading
operations from inclement weather.
The bakery operates 10 delivery vans
of its own, also supplying product to
several independent distributors.
The plan for the renovation was to
think ahead, establish essential systems and fill in details later as necessary. For example, Liscio's provided a
place and wiring for a back-up electrical generator but did not immediately install the equipment. "Budgets,
you know," Mr. Vilotti shrugged. But

such foresight has since paid off. The
area experienced a power outage
caused by a lightening strike, an outage that cost the bakery five hours of
production. The partners promptly
went out and got the generator. A
couple months later, a similar outage occurred. "The lights in the plant
flickered a bit when the automatic
changeover occurred, but we lost no
production at all," Mr. Vilotti said.
"The emergency generator paid for
itself at once."
With the larger building, the company now has an area to store raw
materials and supplies, set adjacent to
a receiving dock, while another area
houses utilities such as the recently
replaced boiler and alarm systems. It
also has a small machine shop for inhouse maintenance of machinery.
GROWTH PROSPECTS. Glassboro,
Liscio's new "hometown," is going
through a renaissance. Much of the
activity centers around Rowan University (formerly Glassboro State College). Many redevelopment projects
are in evidence, as are improvements
in roadways in and out of town. A
new stadium is being built to house
a Major League Soccer team. The
Glassboro Economic Development
Commission helped Mr. Liscio and
Mr. Vilotti negotiate the acquisition
of their new facility. Today, both sit
on the commission.
At the bakery, sales growth has
reached the point of now working
out ways to increase production at
the new plant. There is plenty of
property on-site for expansion. One
idea is to move the retarder room, attaching it to the outside wall.
"As we grow, we want to be flexible
to customer needs," Mr. Vilotti said.
"And we want to uphold the freshness
of our products," Mr. Liscio added.
Maintaining the balance between
these aspects has guided the partners
in their choice of location, technology and business methods. This has
always been part of the business at
Liscio's and always will be.
Ⅲ

Baking & Snack - June 2006

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