Welcome to Season 14 of the Troubleshooting Innovation podcast. Trina Bediako, CEO of New Horizons Baking Co., shares how she balances generational wisdom and youthful disruption to expand a family bakery business in unconventional ways. Sponsored by Coperion.
In Episode 3, Trina explores the evolution of the New Horizons bakery operation and how change feeds growth.
Joanie Spencer: Welcome back, Trina.
Trina Bediako: Thank you. How are you today, Joanie?
Spencer: I am doing pretty well. It’s a rainy day here in Kansas City, so it’s just a good day to snuggle in and have a good conversation with a friend.
Bediako: Sounds good to me.
Spencer: Okay, so I’ve known you for a while. I’ve known New Horizons for a while, and especially after doing the profile on your dad, all I can say is, wow. New Horizons, as it is today, looks so different from the bakery that your dad acquired with John Paterakis, Sr. and Peter Grimm. Could you or he, or anyone in the company or the family, have imagined that it would grow into what it is today?
Bediako: I don’t think so. You know, you dream, you dream, you dream, and then things happen, right? So I think foundationally, we knew as a family, we wanted growth. We were always so grateful to have the opportunity. We wanted to have a place in the industry that we were acknowledged and respected. But to do the things we’re doing today, I’m pretty sure my dad didn’t imagine it. Because I’m doing some things that he wouldn’t have done, or certainly differently than he would have done. And I couldn’t see it either until I was just in it and charged by the excitement of making the change. Something that my father often said to our entire management team was, ‘How big do you want to be?’ How big do you want to be? And it always seemed like such an enormous concept that, you know, we couldn’t define it. But we grew as our customer base grew. We grew as we became stronger as a business overall. And customers presented needs. We grew as we did some blue sky thinking and dreaming, and opportunities presented themselves. So, although I’m not sure how big I want to be today, I know it’s bigger.
Spencer: It certainly is. It certainly is. And it’s funny because ‘big’ is sort of a nebulous term. It’s so subjective. And so, you know, in a couple weeks, we’ll get into the ways that the company has grown in different directions that you you probably didn’t anticipate. But for today, I want to focus on the bakery side of the company.
It was simply a bun manufacturing plant. And now New Horizons is one of the largest bun and English muffin suppliers to US foodservice, and you have a top supplier designation to the McDonald’s network. Now, just from knowing you and having interviewed you several times over the past several years, I know that you’re a very strategic thinker. So what does it take to go from, just, ‘We’re a bun bakery,’ to ‘We have Top Supplier designation in the McDonald’s network, and we’re top supplier of buns and English muffins in the country.’ What does it take to get there? What are some of the hard conversations, the soul searching, big choices, or even little choices that you know were going to pay off down the road?
Bediako: Sure. Sometimes you don’t wait for the opportunity. Sometimes you assess the industry, the economy, what’s going on with other people in the business, or other businesses like yourself, and you make a decision.
I believe when my father was leading, he probably wouldn’t have added a production line unless he knew he had the business locked in. We took a step most recently, added a new facility in Columbus, OH, where we’re building today a high-speed bun line. Now it’s not sold 100%, but we know enough about what we’re doing to believe that eventually it will be. And we identified it was worth the investment now, today. We’re not going to wait for Customer A, B or C to say, ‘We need this.’ And, you know, there’s a risk, but we feel very confident that that line will fill. We’ll be producing early March. It’s in full speed design and build, and it’s very, very exciting to see it coming together. We’re staffing now.
Sometimes you just have to take the risk, take the step. And again, risk has positives and negatives to it. It doesn’t always go the way you want, but you gotta be willing to try. And we just felt like we couldn’t wait.
Spencer: You know, you’re really kind of opening up my mind to a few thoughts. So in my line of work, you know, my background, obviously, is in journalism, and I worked in marketing and communications for the bulk of my career. Our mentality a lot of times — and especially when working for small businesses — we look at, ‘Okay, we are at capacity and we can no longer do our work. It’s time to hire more people.’ But bakeries, especially in the last five years, they don’t really have that luxury anymore. You have to predict what you’re going to do with the supply chain disruption, and knowing one change could trigger a ripple effect that could impact your ability to get that equipment to fill your orders. You’ve got to really create the capacity before you need it. Do you feel like you have to think further ahead now than you did, say, 15 years ago?
Bediako: Sure, and that’s exactly where we’re at. ‘Again, trying to keep, keep the pulse of the industry as best we can. My ops guys, my maintenance guys, we’re watching, we’re looking, we’re seeing what’s happening at the conventions and all. We know our customers. You know, when customers keep coming to you and say, ‘We want X amount, dozen more a year, can you do it for us?’ And you’re saying, ‘Well, no, I can’t, you know, I can’t do that right now.’ Or you’d like to be able to. You’ve got to plan ahead. And waiting for the business to just come in a nice package doesn’t always work. I think it might have been easier years ago, but as you said, supply chain issues in the last five years, this post-COVID world just can’t wait. There’s a risk involved. But as business leaders, we could take a risk or two.
Spencer: Yeah, you can. You have to. I don’t feel like you can be, you can be really as successful if you aren’t willing to take risks in the business world.
Bediako: And we want growth, and we believe in growth, but we really are working so that it’s controlled growth. Mike and I aren’t sitting around thinking, you know, big blue sky, things that aren’t possible to obtain. I may have said this earlier. We always consider the skill sets of our leadership team. Our vision can’t be bigger than our team skill sets and abilities. Keep that close to mind all the time. We try to have training programs and teams and engagements and culture events that help people build on where they need to build so that they can grow and be strong and be capable.
Spencer: Such a good point, because technology and automation, it’s great to fill that workforce gap, but your technology cannot outpace the skill set of the people who are there because then it’s just counterproductive.
Bediako: Sure. I think we can do a better job of — as an industry — of educating the next gen coming up. There are so many jobs in food manufacturing. Every key department has multiple layers. And today, you know, in our new facility, it’s, you know, an incredible technology infrastructure network where so much is just navigated by machinery, right? And machinery that needs coding and programming and can be assessed virtually. It’s a different world.
You know, when I came on board 23 years ago, we might have had, I don’t know, 19 or 15 people on the line at each specific area, and I mean, and now it’s, you know, it’s half that or less, even. And when the machine’s working, it’s beautiful, right? Get a power outage, a little power spurt, and now you lose within the oven. But you need people that know how to navigate that, understand that technology, they’re comfortable with it and can teach it so that we can continue to grow.
Spencer: Sometimes, even though you need fewer people on the line, they got to be a little bit specialized in technology. And so fewer people, harder to find.
Bediako: Yeah, and they are, and it is. And it is. And they’re out there; you gotta search hard. You gotta respect the other bakers; you can’t be stealing everybody’s, you know, employees. But you gotta compensate them properly. The culture has to be right. There’s so much more involved. When I interview people these days, they’re not asking me so much about the company and what we do. They want to know how much vacation time they have, and what is the culture here. And something that we learned in our interviewing buckets is that we weren’t saying the same thing. So we had to, like, pause and say, ‘What is our culture? What do we want it to be? Is it what we think it is? And what message are we giving our prospective new hires?’ It’s important.
Spencer: It is. It really, really is. So, how many total bakery facilities are operating now, and in each one of them, how many lines?
Bediako: Okay, so bakeries. We have four bakeries. In Norwalk, OH, which our corporate office, we have three English muffin lines and one bun line. In our Toledo, OH, facility, we have two English muffin lines and equipment called Rollpack, which produces salt and pepper packets. In Fremont, IN, we have two English muffin lines and a bun line. And on average, those bun lines are about 5,000, 5,000-plus dozen an hour. And in Columbus today, we are building an 8,000-dozen-an-hour bun line.
Spencer: 8,000 dozen. That’s crazy. That’s a lot of buns.
Bediako: A lot of buns!
Spencer: So then, just like a logistical question. How do they function as a network? Like, do those facilities communicate with one another, or do they operate as their own independent entities?
Bediako: The facilities do communicate with each other. Each one has a plant manager, and they report up to a director of operations, though they are a team. But each one has a bit of their own culture, a bit of their own spice, if you will. But they’re united. They’re united well enough to learn from each other and support each other.
One of the best times I remember in my 23-year history is when Mike Porter, my current president, was plant manager in Norwalk, and Mark Duke, who’s a chief engineer for us, was the plant manager in Fremont. And they were friends, and so they talked often and made decisions together. I just remember that being a good time, and our team has developed to that currently with a different set of players. It’s great. They learn, they support. If one bakery needs something, maybe had a CapEx project planned, but the next bakery needs those funds, let’s say, for some reason, bakery A will hold off, let bakery B take advantage of that, and then, you know, settle things later. So we’re in sync. We collaborate. I’ve learned we have to do that.
Spencer: Do you have like, regularly scheduled leadership meetings? Like, do the plant managers get together weekly?
Bediako: Yes, they do.
Spencer: How often does that occur?
Bediako: The plant managers, I believe they meet weekly with the director of ops. My executive team meets once a month. This day and age, there’s multiple meetings going on, you know, all the time. So all of my plant managers at each facility give me their their meeting schedule, and then I join on when I can. And I join on just to kind of hear what’s going on. I can’t be everywhere all the time. I read the reports, and sometimes I just want to hear and see what’s happening.
So, when I’m traveling, if I know at 9:30 I’ve got a layover at an airport, but I could dial into Toledo’s ops call, you know, I’ll do that for a few minutes. I let them know I’m there, you know, say ‘What’s up’ and listen a little bit. And I drop when I’ve had my fill.
Spencer: So you get to a point where you have to delegate out those responsibilities and trust that your team is tapped in and executing what needs to be executed. But it is important to be like in the loop and know what’s going on.
Bediako: Absolutely. My dad always used to say, ‘You gotta check the checker.’
I mean, you know. And I tell you what, I have 100% faith in my team. They’re great at what they do, but I’m just nosy enough to be in there every now and then myself. I gotta know what’s happening. I gotta understand if you ask me a question in the interview, or my dad asks me a question from Las Vegas, I gotta be able to answer it. So I can’t be sitting around, you know, polishing my nails. I better know what’s happening on the production floor.
Spencer: Oh, my Lord, wouldn’t it be nice if leadership was about taking more breaks?
Bediako: Just too much to do. Too much to do.
Spencer: And I always think about, I love what you said, you’ve got to be nosy. Every leader has to be nosy. And that doesn’t mean micromanaging. But I think about — I heard an executive say — ‘A win is shared by the team, but a fail is the responsibility of the leader.’ So, she said, ‘When there’s a win, it’s the team’s win, but if there’s a fail, that’s on me.’ And I really try to live by that too.
But then I think, ‘Okay, so if something goes wrong, I’m going to take responsibility for it.’ But the last thing I want is to take responsibility for it and have to say, ‘I didn’t know what was happening,’ because I feel like that’s far worse.
Bediako: Yeah, and, and it gets harder. The bigger you become as the more employees you have, the more facilities you have, it gets more challenging. It really, really does.
That’s why I talk about controlled growth. You can’t get any bigger than you can manage, or your people, your staff, your key leaders can handle. So it must be controlled growth, but leaders, we’ve have to be in tune. We’ve got to know what’s going on. You got to want to. That’s why it’s the kind of job that you must have the passion. Because if you don’t have the passion for it, you don’t have the the the energy to put in and to check and to keep your door open and to listen and to offer advice. And micromanaging is one thing, but not being connected is another.
Spencer: I totally agree. And I was thinking, when we were saying nosy, I was like, ‘Now make no mistake, there is a difference between being nosy and micromanaging.’ In micromanaging, you make no progress. But being nosy, especially in today’s technology, where information is so accessible to the general public, and in this business where you are making food, and so you don’t want consumers watching the news and hearing there was a recall on your product. Like, you’ve got to be able to stay in front of that, and it’s a hard balance. And that’s why, if leadership was easy, everybody would be leaders, you know, or no one would be.
Bediako: Yeah, you’re absolutely right. I mean, even couple years ago, is it the FASTER act — in regard to sesame seeds — you know, we made a decision. Ee have QSRs and retail and sandwich makers and everyone kind of has a different feel for how they wanted that handled. But because we had multiple facilities, we were able to segregate. So our Norwalk facility today does a non-seeded product, produces non-seeded product. And then our Fremont, IN, location produces seeded buns. Not everybody was able to do that. We chose to do that. It came with a cost, but it was the right thing for us to segregate that product. But it changes things. You know, it changes how you operate, where you deliver product from. It certainly could affect the bottom line, price and and your margins and all those things. But that was the way we felt we could best control and manage through that legislation.
It’s always something you have to consider. We produce ready to eat — ready to eat — and it better be ready to eat, right? The last thing I want is to be on the news that, ‘A small bakery in Northeast Ohio had a shoe in the dough…’
Spencer: Exactly.
Bediako: Don’t want it.
Spencer: Well, and like, it’s such a benefit that you have multiple facilities that you can dedicate one to sesame seed, you know, and you don’t have to worry about that cross contamination. But I am just going to go out on a limb and say it’s a little bit more complicated than just, ‘Okay, starting Monday, all seeded products are going to be made here.’ It’s a lot of work. So it’s everything comes with benefits and challenges, right?
Bediako: Sure. Our belief is that we have to operate in a means of integrity, in a way that we can feel comfortable with, that we can manage, that we can speak a truth to our customers that give them comfort and continue to function.
Spencer: So when, when you, when you brought that up, I got a date myself, because knowing that you’re, you know, a top supplier for the McDonald’s network, and you’re talking about sesame seeds. Now, all I hear is that McDonald’s ad from the 80s singing the song, ‘Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun!’
Bediako: That’s right. And so it’s just like, sesame is now an allergen. And you’re like …
When did that happen? Yeah, no, it’s real. And it’s something that we remember, that that song, that slogan.
Spencer:
Yeah, I bet, I bet.
Okay, so New Horizons has always operated on this philosophy that for a bakery operation to be successful, the company has to invest back into its equipment, its plants and its people. And I feel like when you say you’ve got to live your truth and speak your truth for transparency and for what’s best for your workforce and your customers, that’s what this means, this philosophy means. So how has that contributed to New Horizons growth?
Bediako: Sure. Well, I mean, it’s been everything. Each one of those components is critical. How we address it determines our degree of success.
It does start with the people: how we treat them, how we compensate them, what we do for them, as far as benefits are concerned. The future of the company — the fact that they can see even through COVID, and all the challenges with that — we continue to operate. We’ve never laid off any of our staff. We are a union shop. We give bonuses every year and merit increases, and we celebrate, we teach and we challenge. And we reinvest in our business.
Without reinvestment, then the growth is minimized. So yeah, I’m an owner, and I get a salary, but we put our money back in our business. My family is not just, you know, going to the bank every day and not taking care of the company. We reinvest and we’ve done that long before I came on, and it’s been great.
Our business, our revenue, has multiplied over seven times since my dad started. And a lot of that has to do with the investments that that we’ve put in. And then getting the very best equipment, I guess, that we can afford, right? We attended iba a couple years ago and made some decisions about the equipment manufacturer that we wanted to work with for the 8,000 dozen bun line. And that was one of the best conventions because we went with a purpose. We weren’t just there, you know, walking around and enjoying taking advantage of everything, but we went with a plan. ‘We want to build this bakery over this amount of time. These are the components. These are the characteristics. This is what we need. Manufacturer A, manufacturer B, equipment guy, can you help us do that? And you know, what components are you recommending? What’ll make us best in class, and what does it cost?’ So we really enjoyed that convention because we went intentionally, and then we we made our decisions, and we’re, I don’t know, we’re probably 95% complete now.
Spencer: And now we have IBIE coming up this year. I’m guessing that you’re not finished growing.
So, when you think about your plans for IBIE and how you sort of get together and say, ‘Where do we need to be?’ And you answered that when our associate editor Lily hosted the Q&A with the planning committee. You and Kim were really insightful about how bakers need to — you’re bakers, you have your teams — and so you were giving advice to other attendees. ‘This is how we go about it,’ and ‘You have to ask those questions.’ Where do you want to be next year, and how does that formulate what you need to be looking at in the conversations that you need to have at IBIE. How do you prioritize where the investments go, whether it’s equipment, the buildings or the people?
Bediako: Yes. So, it’s all about what projects we’re working on and what we think is on the docket. So as we approach this year’s convention, there might be a project or two out there that we’ll dabble in with the new bun line being operational in March, and then another production line that’ll be operational in September, which is right, you know, right about the same time, we may focus more this year on education in general for our for our people, for our staff. We’re going to take big advantage of the IBIEducate platform. We’ll look at that with each department — quality maintenance, engineering, ops — and see what’s available from those perspectives. And just give our people an extra boost, a little more knowledge to help them deal with you know, again, two new production lines, actually, in my Columbus location.
Mike may say otherwise, and there’s still irons in the fire. But after we get these two lines running in Columbus, I want a little bit of time to just dot the i’s and cross the T’s and make sure we’re really doing okay.
Spencer: Yeah, that that totally makes sense. And it goes back to what you said about the technology. You’ve gotta have people who can keep up with that technology. So it’s constant learning.
Bediako: Yes. Just thinking about the industry, and you asked me about, you know, what we are, what we should be doing, or what the women should be doing out there: learning. Keep learning. You know, keep reading. We get magazines and reports that pop across our screens all the time. In order to be active and engaged in this industry, we have to keep learning. So I want to encourage everyone continue to read what’s going on, read the periodicals, go to the conventions and the conferences, talk to the people in the industry so you really understand the happenings. We’ve got to be able to speak the language well; we’ve got to be able to understand to understand the direction of the industry so that we can make, you know, we can establish our position.
Spencer: I love that, and it’s good to remember that it isn’t just the people on the line that need to be continually learning. It’s every step in every department or every aspect of a baking company. There’s always more to learn because the world is changing in the way people eat are changing and the way foodservice operators and retailers sell their products is changing. So, you’re right. It is continual.
Bediako: Yeah. The pallets are different. That’s the only way I can describe it. The pallets are different. People are just eating differently.
Spencer: Yeah, literally and metaphorically, really. Okay, so can you sort of — outside of the trade shows, and when you think about the line that’s going to start up in March — can you just sort of quickly describe the planning process as far as how you make decisions for new equipment or for new line installations, and like, how do you know when and how to upgrade versus expanding a facility or opening a new one?
Bediako: Well, I gotta tell you, some of it is driven, you know, by the age of the facilities, the age of the equipment. Can I add to this facility without, you know, making such an investment that it almost costs more than, you know, rebuild or buying new you know. That delta has to be considered. A lot of times, customers will bring opportunities to the table. And then we think, Well, can we do it here, or do we need new brick and mortar? And then, if you can make agreements, supply agreements with your customers that allow you to share some of that burden, that makes it easier as well. So our core is buns and muffins, and all sorts of buns and muffins, right? We’ve diversified just a pinch in the ingredient realm. That’s been good for us. But when an opportunity presents itself, we think about what’s our capacity levels today? Can we do what this customer is asking? Do we have the skills to do what they’re asking? You know, gotta talk to your banks: ‘Banker, do you believe in what we’re bringing to the table, and can you help us finance this?’ And then we try to make it happen.
So for us, growth has been about — a lot of it’s come as a result of customers asking questions. The few acquisitions that we’ve had, two small acquisitions, we thought, well, you know, we haven’t done that yet. You know, an opportunity presented itself. Why don’t we? Why don’t we try this? And let’s see how we do it. Once you have one acquisition, you’re like, ‘Oh man, let me do let me get another one in.’
Spencer: You caught the fever!
Bediako: So, e often ask, ‘How big do we want to be?’ You look at what we’re doing. What else? What else could we do with the skill sets that we have in a profitable manner? What will it take?
Spencer: You know, I gotta say that statement right there just kind of is a great way to wrap this up because it goes back to the first answer that you gave me, that everything that we talked about sums up what defines ‘big’ for you, and how big do you want to be. So I think that’s a great note to end on for this week. What a great conversation, Trina.
Bediako: Well, thank you. I appreciate your time.
Spencer: So okay, we are about halfway through the season, and the next two weeks we’re going to really take a more forward-looking approach with our conversation. So we’re going to kind of go back to succession planning, but looking forward and looking at the future for how you’re building this company. And then after that, we’re really going to talk about where New Horizons is going, even beyond the bone and muffin line. So thank you again for your time and wisdom and insight, Trina. It was a joy.
Bediako: Thank you, Joanie, I’ll talk to you next time.
Learn more about this season here, and tune into Troubleshooting Innovation on Apple or Spotify.
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