More Than A Bakery’s origin and operational development

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More Than A Bakery’s origin and operational development

6 Nov 2024

Joanie Spencer

Since 2008, Joanie Spencer has covered the retail and wholesale sides of the baking industry.
Serving associations such as the American Society of Baking (ASB) and BEMA, Joanie is also in demand as an industry presenter on bakery operations and trends. She holds a bachelor’s degree in communication from Rockhurst University and a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri.

When she’s not running or playing soccer, Joanie spends her time with her husband and 11-year-old son.

VERSAILLES, KY — Time is a funny thing. The days are long, but the years are short. In the blink of an eye, a lifetime passes, leaving generations to contemplate their contribution to a legacy. That’s especially true for family-owned bakeries. When business passes down, each generation has an opportunity to create its own pivotal moments … the chance to write their own chapter in a long family story.

When James Quigg Jr. looked back on his chapter, he marked automating the flour system at Richmond, IN-based Richmond Baking as his pivotal contribution. For Bill Quigg, James’ son and current president of Richmond Baking and its sister company, Versailles, KY-based More Than A Bakery, the pivotal moments build a legacy.

Bill and his wife, Felicia, spun off More Than A Bakery with a mission to create exactly what the name suggested: a new kind of commercial baking culture that combined the grit and hard skills of manufacturing with the ties that bind like family.

“One of our pivotal moments was creating More Than A Bakery,” Bill said. “There was a lot of work we did from a design standpoint, and Felicia created a culture that connected the people and company in a way that very much intertwined them together.”

While the original Richmond Baking operation is alive and well, More Than A Bakery is producing cookies and crackers for contract manufacturing customers and its own MJM brand. It’s empowering its workforce — Family Members, as they’re called here — and making huge strides in automation while maintaining the Quigg family values passed on through four generations.

From the time More Than A Bakery started up production in this 225,000-square-foot facility, the team maintained a mindset of curiosity that not only questions the status quo but also at times shatters it.

From the building’s layout to the “all for one and one for all” mentality, More Than A Bakery has spent the past seven years changing what’s possible for modern commercial baking.

“We’ve had a lot of obstacles thrown at us over the past seven years,” said Felicia Quigg, the company’s VP of family pride. “Obviously, we’re a different kind of startup, but you always hear people talk about the five-year mark for startups getting their footing, and we definitely felt that. We’ve taken a lot of different shapes since the beginning, and it hasn’t been a linear progression, but we’ve stayed strong, and we’re still here.”

When the operation started up in 2017, it was designed with the highest food safety standards, earning SQF Level III certification. Crossing the threshold into the bakery means passing from the “dirty” side to the “clean” side; to do so requires not only a wipe-down of any outside objects such as cellphones or handbags but also leaving shoes behind in trade for “clean” shoes or covers (that still must pass through sanitation from one area to the next once inside).

The operation’s hygienically zoned layout segments pre-bake from post-bake, with one adjacent “clean corridor” that allows people to get from one end of the plant to the other without entering the pre- or post-bake zones directly.

Entering either side requires uniforms throughout and special “bunny suits” to be worn over the uniform in the pre-bake area. Traversing from any area to another requires a stop at another hand-washing station and a change of hairnet (and, in some cases, shoes). Even ingredients coming into the bakery are considered “dirty” and must go through strict inspections before entering the clean operation.

These high standards have done more than make the operation food-safe; they’ve also led to some new business opportunities.

“We get a lot of comments about how clean our facility is,” said Ian Lady, assistant VP of operations. “When people see how we run, they want to make their product here.”

But that’s just the starting point.

Continuous improvement, as well as setting — and refining — processes, is a priority.

“We’ve been focused on putting systems in place across the board for all seven years,” Felicia said. “In the last two or three, we’ve been able to put some real substance behind them. We’re much more purposeful about having a process for everything and holding each other accountable if the process isn’t followed. So, if something goes awry, we know how to follow up and understand why. That couldn’t really happen until we got our real traction.”

This story has been adapted from the October | Q4 2024 issue of Commercial Baking. Read the full story in the digital edition here.

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