At Muffin Town, which touts itself as “America’s Premium Value Bakery,” quality is synonymous with consistency.

“Our formulas are based on healthy, good-for-you indulgence,” said Andre Andrade, director of operations. “We’re not creating shelf-stable, long-lasting products. We don’t make gourmet, foofy muffins with drizzles and streusel and injected fillings and everything under the sun that are 2,000 calories. We make muffins that are more nutritious, premium and consistently good.”

As a result, the bakeries in Chelsea and Lawrence, Mass., rely on freezing as a natural preservative, noted Scott Anderson, vice president of operations.

“We’re not producing additive-type, driven products,” he said. “We make hearty, delicious products that are best when they’re thaw-and-serve. They may have a five-to-seven-day shelf life when thawed, which works great for foodservice. We never built our business on a million different ingredients in the deck.”

However, freezing all products doesn’t mean baking to build inventory.

“We’ll get an order and turn it around in two weeks,” Anderson said. “We get one week to prepare to make it, then bake it and freeze it for two days before we ship it.”

Geographically, Muffin Town’s core market is up and down the East Coast. 

“When I think of growth, I think of it as coming from the retail side of the business and with the in-store bakery channel out West,” Anderson said. “There’s an awful lot of business out there.”

Roger Piffer, marketing director for Muffin Town, added the company has been expanding its online initiatives with the Madeline’s Pantry brand, following up on the success of its business-to-consumer initiatives that blossomed during the pandemic. 

Operationally, the focus is on continuous improvement at the SQF Level 2-certified Lawrence bakery.

“We’re introducing new products regularly, so we want to innovate every day and improve our operation from a food safety standpoint by training our employees to make sure we’re doing better,” observed Radalys Luna, the Lawrence facility’s quality assurance manager.

Using quality key performance indicators, she added, the department reviews customer feedback and ensures any negative comments in the past do not repeat going forward.

To address omnipresent labor challenges, Muffin Town has focused on eliminating non-value-added jobs that don’t produce baked goods or contribute to the bottom line, noted Veronica Gonzalez, Muffin Town’s administrative manager.

“We make sure everyone receives proper training, so they understand the bakery’s rules and have a strong focus on safety and quality assurance,” she said.

Anderson pointed out the company doesn’t rely on temporary help, preferring to hire a staff of full-time employees to run the bakeries.

“It’s a testament to our human resources team that we find good employees and train them properly,” he said. “It could be, at times, a lot of turnover, but we want our employees to be part of the family and part of the culture. ‘Temps’ don’t buy into that philosophy. It’s just a job.”

Rolando Martinez, Lawrence facility plant manager, added that the company’s veterans, some with 20-plus years of industry experience, oversee departments, supervise lines and execute a variety of tasks each day.

Luna said that expertise is especially critical in the complex packaging department where many new employees begin their careers in the baking industry.

 “Our cornbread goes to many different customers, so we have to make sure that every package is labeled correctly,” she explained. “We’re always vigilant and double checking to make sure the packaging is correct.”

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