Baking & Snack - April 2015 - 26

FANTINI BAKERY

Production Mixers Andy Reynoso (left) and Yoel Batista
add dough to the mixer to create a marble rye dough.
Lou Jones

"Everything we do is to
become more efficient so
we can continue to offer the
best value to the customer.
"
Joe Fantini
way. "It's really important to learn from your mistakes,
and even though the next generation didn't live through
those mistakes, they have to know what they were,"
Joe said, referring to a moment in the late 1970s when
Fantini almost went under.
As insurance against repeating some of those errors, they've also been investing in training, sending sons Alex, Tommy and Mike to AIB International,
Manhattan, KS, to gain a better understanding of modern commercial baking. While all three men may have
grown up in the bakery - Alex and Mike can recall
sweeping the floors when they were 12 - attending AIB
classes have brought them perspective that comes with
meeting others in the baking industry.
"You learn a lot working with other managers and
people from the big bakeries: Bimbo, Flowers," Alex said.
Being outside of the day-to-day of the bustling bakery
and learning from not only books but also peers, Alex,
Mike and Tommy have been able to bring about critical changes in operations to ensure the business keeps
up with changing times, a legacy from their grandfather
who introduced automation to the bakery.
With the knowledge they gained at AIB, Alex, Tommy
and Mike have introduced some changes. About five

26 Baking & Snack April 2015 / www.bakingandsnack.com

years ago, they brought in AIB to conduct an inspection
and help improve food safety procedures. "It was eye
opening at first because you think you're doing things
right," Alex said. "Then they do inspections, and you
can't believe you've missed things or you're not doing
things you're supposed to be doing."
However, with a business as established as Fantini
Bakery, change doesn't always come about so easily. The
bakery employs 150 people, some of whom have worked
there for decades and others who are second-generation
employees. With so many legacies, modernizing procedures takes a lot of time and effort.
"One of the challenges was a lot of the regulations are
newer, like in the past 10 years or so," Mike said. "A lot of
people here, the foremen, have worked here for 20-plus
years, so they've been doing one thing, one way for 20
years, and then a lot of this stuff has to change."
Facilitating new work procedures took some micromanaging among the department heads and sending
them to training as well. "Change starts from the top and
works its way down," Alex said.
As an added check on the team, everyone is also being cross-trained across the bakery so that no balls are
ever dropped. "We want everyone to have a good understanding of all the different departments so they appreciate and step in to help whenever someone asks for it,"
Robert said.
Alex, who is currently heading food safety, initially
managed the first AIB inspections the bakery underwent. During Baking & Snack's visit, it was Mike who
had taken over the preparations for an impending inspection. While Tommy is currently the dough expert,

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