Baking & Snack - November 2010 - 38

38
labor needed along the lines currently is for packaging
the thin and bar cookies.
Cookie production begins in one of three Peerless
1,800-lb horizontal mixers. A Pfening automated ingredient handling system feeds bulk materials to the mixer.
The ingredient system includes three 110,000-lb silos -
two for flour and one for sugar. Two 80,000-lb tanks -
one for shortening and one for high-fructose corn syrup
- are also used to store bulk ingredients. The ingredient
handling system also incorporates a Metalfab system to
dispense dextrose from 2,000-lb totes.
Also located in the mixing room is a fourth Peerless
horizontal mixer, which is used for mixing cremes to fill
its sandwich cookies. The company also has a 6X sugar
processing mill to grind granulated sugar into powdered
sugar for cremes.
After mixing, cookie dough is unloaded onto APV
Baker automated dough feeding systems on all three lines.
Line No. 1 makes wire-cut cookies, and Line No. 2 uses
an APV rotary moulder to form products. Line No. 3 can
produce either wire-cut or rotary-moulded cookies.
Cookies on all three lines are baked in APV tunnel ovens
that were installed when the facility was commissioned in
1992. The ovens all are aligned in parallel. Ovens on Line
Nos. 1 and 2 have been expanded through the years, from
80 to 160 ft and from 100 to 150 ft. The oven on Line No. 3

will be extended from 80 to 160 ft, doubling capacity on the
line, after the next building expansion is completed.
Bud's Best also will install a fourth line after the plant
expansion is completed. Currently, the company is running near capacity and needs the extra line for future
growth. "This will allow us to go out and sell more," Al
Cason said. "And that is what we want to do."
Bud's Best revenues this year are expected to exceed
$30 million, but without increased capacity, sales will not
grow as fast as they have in past years. In regard to needing more space for future growth, Al Cason said, "It's a
very good problem to have."
He referred to the expansion as "optimistic growth" and
quickly added, "but that is the direction we are going."
Al Cason also pointed out that the company is in an
unusual situation because it can finance the expansion
on its own. While some companies are searching for
lines of credit to expand their operations, Bud's Best is
able to pay as it goes, and ironically, banks want to loan
money to help finance its expansion projects, he said.
SANDWICHING AND PACKAGING. After cookies are
baked they travel under exhaust fans that help to draw heat
from them before they reach sandwiching or packaging stations. This is the area where lines begin to look more complicated because their layout is not so linear. Bud's Best mini
cookies and vanilla wafers are packaged in bags.
Bite-size base cakes travel through a Compass stacking system that feeds two Peters 4-lane sandwiching
◀ A wire-cut machine forms more than 3,100 vanilla wafer cookies per minute.

▲ The rotary moulder creates base cakes for the company's standard-size
sandwich cookies that are sold under the Uncle Al's brand.
◀ After baking, cookies travel under exhaust fans that help to draw heat
from the cookies. Also, extra rotary moulds are covered in plastic and stored
next to the line.

BAKING & SNACK / November 2010

Baking & Snack - November 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Baking & Snack - November 2010