Although R&FF traditionally honors only one plant each year in each of our six categories, we made an exception this year for Richelieu Foods Inc. of Braintree, Mass. After all, like bologna without bread, the company’s Beaver Dam, Wis., plant would be lost without the building blocks provided by its Washington Court House, Ohio, counterpart. Together, the two plants are a productivity powerhouse — producing as many as 144,000 (12,000 cases of 12) private-label, contract-packaged and branded frozen pizzas a day. (The Beaver Dam facility also produces prepared salads and deli items.)

These two plants’ achievements also resulted in Richelieu’s selection last year as “Pizza Manufacturer of the Year” by Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery magazine, an R&FF sister publication.

“Over the past few years, our Beaver Dam plant has tripled its pizza production volume and, at the same time, reduced labor costs by 25 percent — all while increasing the complexity of the product mix,” says Jim Campbell, general manager of the Beaver Dam facility. “This includes the addition of such products as organic and brick-oven-style pizza.”

For its part, the Washington Court House plant has perfected a unique cold press process to stamp out a wide variety of crusts — ranging from extra thin to self-rising and everything in between — sporting a number of edge treatments.

The process begins with 500-pound batches of dough — produced from organic, conventional or whole-wheat flour — which are mixed and then divided into small balls before they are rounded and dropped into an ambient bucket for several minutes. After they are treated to a vegetable oil coating, the balls are pressed into pans that feature cavities with the specific dimensions for the type of crust being produced. Unlike many other pizza processing facilities, the Washington Court House plant applies no heat to the presses or pans during the process.

The finished crusts — to the tune of more than 1.7 million 12-count cases annually — either are refrigerated or frozen and shipped almost daily to the Beaver Dam plant for topping, notes Vincent Fantegrossi, Richelieu’s president and chief executive officer.

In addition to being a productivity standout, the Beaver Dam plant boasts the flexibility necessary to respond rapidly to customer needs.

“The Beaver Dam plant is very customer-focused and is especially responsive to the changing tastes in retail pizza and salads,” Campbell stresses. “We are proud that we produce hundreds of different products for our many private-label customers. Producing fewer SKUs for longer runs would be a much easier task; however, our customers desire customized products aimed at their specific customer base, and we strive to meet their specific needs.”

The Beaver Dam facility also is not overly automated, Campbell notes, a reality that allowed it to expand quickly into both the brick oven-style and organic pizza arenas. But the combination of automated technology and manual labor necessitates a first-rate workforce.

“We have an extremely diverse workforce, which allows us to hire high-quality workers from any demographic group in our area,” Campbell notes. “We have worked hard to make our plant one of the best employers in our area.”

Jim Campbell, general manager of Richelieu Foods’ Beaver Dam, Wis., facility, tells Refrigerated & Frozen Foods about some of the company’s pizza plant accomplishments and initiatives.

Jim Campbell: During the year, we completed the implementation of a new pizza line at Beaver Dam that has nearly doubled the production capacity of the Beaver Dam plant. The additional capacity has allowed us to grow our business into new areas, most notably organic pizza. We also successfully launched Chef Antonio Organic Pizza, our own nationwide organic pizza program. The Chef Antonio Pizza line is the only full line of organic pizzas in the country.

Campbell: Both plants had to obtain organic certification, which was a completely new area for us, and train the people on the line in the unique organic requirements. The new production line also required us to increase the Beaver Dam plant workforce. Fortunately, our existing workforce is very diverse, and we are able to hire from just about any demographic group our area has to offer. We also have many employees with 20-plus years of service, and they are very helpful in training new employees.

Campbell: Most of the plant management has been together for between 15 and 30 years, and their skills and experience make an important contribution to the strength of our company. The workforce in this part of the country has a great work ethic, which is why our plant employees play such a great part in making our company as strong as it is. They are very conscious of product safety and quality, but we stress the need to constantly improve.

We established a Continuous Improvement Program that encompasses all of the major areas of the plant. Our goal has been to constantly challenge ourselves and each other to improve and build upon what is already in place.

Campbell: Food safety is always our number-one concern. We continually train employees to ensure a safe and wholesome food supply. Having a good groundwork of food safety programs has helped us maintain an AIB Superior rating.

Campbell: We have continuing initiatives in improving product quality, productivity and efficiency.

My message to our management and supervision is to never become complacent, because we can always get better at what we are doing. The corporate level of our company has been fantastic in supporting us in our initiatives.

Check out the July 2006 issue of Stagnito Communications’ Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery on the magazine’s Web site, www.snackandbakery.com, to learn more about Richelieu’s pizza operation.