Baking & Snack - August 2009 - 22

ᮡThe Mi Ranchito
Organic line packaging has been recently
revamped, and
the product is a
favorite
to both Colorado and
Arizona natives.

incorporated very efficient and flexible systems."
Ms. Ralston stayed with Prime Choice after
the acquisition and was promoted soon after.
"R&D is a big focus for the company and the
Denver facility," she noted. "Our current interests point at components incorporated into the
dough such as color, flavor or functional ingredients versus topical applications as product extensions."
For example, it is looking to put jalapeño flakes into the dough for flavor and
color or chia seeds for texture and nutritional advantages. "This is an area
of growth that could really push tortilla chip sales compared with potato
chips," Ms. Ralston said.
Prime Choice Foods' R&D work is split between both
facilities depending on the customer location and request
for samples. The company has nearly 30 R&D projects in
progress including baked and extruded items for which it
works in coordination with both facilities to make sure if
a customer wants national manufacturing needs they can
be produced between both locations.
Mauro Gomez, vice-president of sales noted, "R&D is
what keeps us ahead of the curve, it drives us to grow sales

with current customers and the opportunity to bring in new
customers. The company's motto has always been if we feel
it will give us a point of differentiation and expand or offerings then we will look at purchasing new equipment."
The PCFW plant has two main production lines that share
a fryer, allowing flexibility to run various products and flavors. The smaller R&D line is used for sampling and shorter
specialty runs. "Scale-up from the R&D line to the main production line is so much easier than from a lab sample," said
Tom Henson, plant manager. "We also use the line to show
customers our capabilities and just experiment with ideas that
might come from within the company as well as customers."
According to Jose Gomez, "Although R&D is currently
spearheaded in Denver with input from corporate headquarters in Henderson, and associates at Bristol, we are
planning to centralize R&D in Henderson and build a lab
and pilot plant within a year, thereby opening up production space in Denver and allowing dedicated efforts in
R&D and customer interaction at Henderson."
GROWTH-READY. Currently, the Denver plant has
more than 30 full-time associates plus a labor pool of
about 20 part-time employees to pull from, according
to Mr. Henson. While 90% of production is private label, it owns three brands across company, including

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Baking & Snack - August 2009

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