In a corner of the production floor at Dewey’s Bakery plant, Vinnie Pellegrino, vice president of R&D, mixes, rolls and bakes up some of what could be new products added to the Dewey’s line. The 22-year company veteran keeps things moving, churning out three to four product samples each day.
“It’s a source of pride that we have good R&D internally,” said Mike Senackerib, chief executive officer of Dewey’s Bakery Inc. “That doesn’t mean we don’t ever do anything outside, but most of it we do here because we have the capabilities to develop the formulas and because everything is in the building. We can scale up and start producing.”
Ideas come from a variety of sources. Some of the more recent offerings of the Moravian cookies include peanut butter last year and key lime this year.
“We’ll do some combination of looking at trends in the marketplace, what’s selling, what’s growing, what are the broader macro trends,” Mr. Senackerib said. “But then we’ll also do consumer research, too. So when we’re looking at what flavors do we want to do next for our lineup, we’ve done some work with our consumers as well as non-Dewey’s consumers, finding out what would they be interested in. That helps us to decide what’s next.”
New items being considered are tested, tweaked and tested again, going through a multi-step process.
“We have an internal process that’s a go/no-go that’s very rigorous because the last thing we want to do is pitch a new item that someone wants to purchase, and then we don’t have the ability to run it,” said David Catlett, chief operating officer.
The company also works with partners to help them develop recipes of new flavors they want to try, developing variations they can test to find the best alternative.
Dewey’s is also working on new areas where they could extend the brand while also staying true to its heritage, Mr. Senackerib said, predicting that the business likely will have some new products to share later this year.
This article is an excerpt from the June 2023 issue of Baking & Snack. To read the entire feature on Dewey's Bakery Inc., click here.