Bright ideas light up the bakeries at Muffin Town. That’s especially true when it comes to illuminating new products, discovering additional avenues for sales or finding better ways to continually improve its bakery operations in Lawrence and Chelsea, Mass.

Take the new SunWise Cinnamon Toast bread pudding snack, which comes in 4-lb trays with 30 easy-to-serve squares for foodservice. The company also introduced its individually wrapped 2.4-oz Cinnamon Toast Bar, a whole grain on-the-go treat for convenience stores and other retail accounts.

“They’re absolutely delicious. There’s nothing in the market like it today,” said Roger Piffer, marketing director for Muffin Town, also known as JSB Industries. “We’re pushing these snacks toward restaurants, but they can be sold anywhere where they serve food, like in a senior living center where they serve it on a plate.”

As retailers seek out new products to re-engage consumers this year, the Chelsea-based company has responded by rolling out its Grab & Go line that features individually wrapped blueberry muffins, double chocolate chip muffins, coffee cake and cornbread in 12-pack cartons.

 Responding to a shifting market during the pandemic, the company invested heavily in new packaging capabilities. Piffer said ongoing demand for individually wrapped items now accounts for the bulk of its growth in the market.

“We’re trying to push [Grab & Go] into c-stores and make it easier to ship online because you’re only selling 12 per carton, not a whole case of 30 items,” he explained. “You can place it in a corner of a c-store, which is limited in space, or in a hospital cafeteria for a quick snack.”

Constant innovation is in the DNA of this family-run baking company, where its core sales to school foodservice still account for more than half of its annual business. The management team is always looking to diversify its portfolio and surf into distribution channels with new products and packaging.

Currently, the fastest-growing markets are in private label and co-manufacturing, especially for its crustless SunButter & Jelly Sandwiches, which are sold in four-pack cartons and offer a peanut-free alternative in this ever-expanding category, noted Scott Anderson, vice president of operations.

The sunflower butter sandwiches come with strawberry or grape jelly and provide a convenient snack or meal replacement for students during or after school.

“Our growth right now is in the frozen retail case,” he said. “It is with retailers who want to offer a private label alternative to the market leader. We have no problem with anyone’s name being on our products. We’re a manufacturer, first and foremost, and we’d like to have others marketing and selling the products.”

The baking company also provides an array of muffins, cornbread, bagels, cookies, brownies, bars, chocolate cake bowls, cornbread bowls and more sold under the Muffin Town, Smart Choice, SunWise, Aesops Bagels and Madeline’s Pantry brands.

In all, Muffin Town puts out more than 350 SKUs. Anderson explained that’s because of the business philosophy that his father, Jack Anderson, now chief executive officer, has had since he founded the business in 1978. 

His brothers, Brian and John, serve as vice president of finance and sales, respectively.

“We have sort of a ‘don’t say no’ mentality,” Anderson explained. “We’ve always had a can-do mentality. We want to be a one-stop shop when it comes to muffins and other products we offer.”

For Muffin Town, success means making the smartest choices for the long run.

This article is an excerpt from the April 2024 issue of Baking & Snack. To read the entire feature on Muffin Town, click here.