Baking&Snack - April 2012 - 38

ALESSI BAKERIES

steady stream of wholesale volume at its 100,000-sq-ft facility on the Northwest side of Tampa.

Writing on the wall
Alessi Bakeries invested $20 million to build the current wholesale operation five years ago. It replaced a smaller, 40,000-sq-ft bakery Mr. Alessi Sr. opened in the 1990s after a regional supermarket customer approached him with a request to produce its signature desserts. “My father saw the writing on the wall with in-store bakeries taking over,” Mr. Alessi Jr. explained. “The retail bakery industry was falling by the wayside. They couldn’t compete with in-store bakeries anymore.” Alessi Bakeries’ wholesale division carved a niche by specializing in the production of miniature fancy pastries and elegant single-serve desserts inspired by some of the family’s most popular recipes. These thaw-andserve items such as its best-selling tiramisu and tres leches cakes come in a standard 40-count box as well as a variety of bulk packaging formats. The company also assembles platter kits with 120 individual brownies, tartlets, mini-éclairs and small puff pastries for in-store bakeries. To serve retail accounts and its burgeoning convenience store business, Alessi Bakeries produces individu-

the market,” he said. “We have a nice quality product with a true flavor profile. If it’s a carrot cake, it tastes like a carrot. If it’s a chocolate one, it is pure chocolate.” Some newer products include cheesecake lollipops — round dollops of chocolate-enrobed cheesecake bites on a lollipop stick. Additionally, the bakery co-packs and customdesigns baked goods for specific accounts through its R&D center.

Quality through automation
Alessi Bakeries carved itself a niche by developing mini-desserts such as cheesecake lollipops that come in eight varieties. ally wrapped snacks such as iced chocolate cakes, carrot cakes and banana cakes packed in 12-count boxes. Mini-parfaits come in 3-oz plastic dessert cups. The wholesale plant even supplies 90% of the desserts and other baked goods for its Tampa retail shop because it can make them more efficiently at the large bakery than in the smaller retail shop. Alessi Bakeries distributes its upscale desserts primarily throughout the Southeast, although the bakery plans to raise its presence in Texas this year, according to Mr. Alessi Jr. “We’re not the cheapest, and we’re not the highest-priced products in In many ways, Alessi Bakeries’ wholesale plant runs like an oversized retail bakery, but that’s slowly changing. The often labor-intensive, semiautomated operation relies on small batch mixing and moveable equipment that it can mix and match to create lines tailored to its formulas’ specifications. For instance, it assembles three production lines to make its tres leches cakes and four lines — two on one side of the plant and two on the other — to put together its tiramisu squares. Most products require some handwork such as adding icing to mini-éclairs or dusting the word “tiramisu” with fine cocoa on every mini-dessert square to create a signature product. “We’ve become flexible with our automation,” Mr. Alessi Jr. noted. “We don’t have a conveyor for just one item. We interchange them. On depositors, we use different nozzles and tips. We have 20 stainless steel tables, and we can move them where we need them. But we can produce a lot. Our éclair machine can make 100,000 units a day.” This year, Alessi Bakeries actively seeks new ways to control costs and improve consistency. “The mentality before was that we cannot automate because it would take away from quality, but there is so much good automation out there that won’t touch the quality,” he said. “It will actually enhance it, and that’s what we’re looking at.”

100 years and still going strong

Alessi Bakeries’ heritage dates back to 1912, when Nicolo Alessi came over from Sicily, opened a small bakery and later brought his family to Tampa, FL, because he liked the region so much. His son John Alessi then started his own bakery. In turn, John’s son Phil Alessi Sr. started working in his father’s shop when he was 6 years old. When he turned 16, Mr. Alessi Sr. opened what was then called Phil’s Bakery. Like his father, Phil Alessi Jr. began working in the bakery when he was 6 years old, too. Mr. Alessi Jr., now the CEO of Alessi Bakeries, attributed the family’s success to its passion for the baking industry and for those who came before him. “Here I am, the fourth generation, he said. “We ” share a nice reputation in the community. If it weren’t for my greatgrandfather and all of the work he did, I would not be in the position I am today. Obviously, we work very hard at what we do. ”

/ Baking & Snack / April 2012

www.bakingandsnack.com

http://www.bakingandsnack.com

Baking&Snack - April 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Baking&Snack - April 2012