"Just like the Liberty Bell belongs in Philadelphia, so does Tastykake," company president and CEO Charles Pizzi told a gathering of prominent business leaders, social luminaries and members of the media at the new site's [image-nocss] grand opening earlier this week. The Tastykake logo at his back during an introductory press conference, Pizzi was joined on stage by colleagues and business partners he said helped make the relocation possible, including Howard Stoeckel, CEO of Wawa, Pa.-based retailer Wawa Inc. Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter shared taped remarks via video, through which Rendell called Tastykake "as much a fabric of Philadelphia as Ben Franklin...and the cheesesteak."
A tour of the new facility was preceded by a ribbon-cutting ceremony, where elected officials such as Representative Bob Brady (D-Pa.) lauded Tasty Baking for keeping its headquarters in Philadelphia and preserving hundreds of local jobs. He also joined many other prominent Philadelphians in sharing stories of lifelong love affairs with their Tastykake favorites by saying, "I never met a Tastykake I didn't like."
Billed as "Tastykake's Moving Day," the morning began with a sunrise procession of delivery trucks from the company's former headquarters on Hunting Park Avenue to the 345,000-square-foot baking, packaging and distribution facility in Philadelphia's Navy Yard, which has become one of the city's most promising business-development spots. The company also moved its corporate headquarters to a 35,000-sq.-ft. building a mile away from the bakery, just inside the Navy Yard's entrance. The bakery's opening is the culmination of a process that began four years ago, when the company first scouted the Navy Yard site as a relocation possibility.
Tasting Baking executives expect the new site's equipment to bring greater innovation, flexibility and efficiency to its baking operations. The facility, on 25 sprawling acres, needs only seven highly automated production linestwo for cupcakes and one each for cookie bars, Juniors/Kreamies, Kandy Kakes, Krimpets and piesto produce the same baked-goods output as the 88-year-old facility from which it recently moved, with room for further expansion. In addition, the baking equipment is powered by a highly efficient system that employs reusable "thermal oil" rather than traditional gas. Such innovations, among many others, have spurred company officials to refer to the site as "the greenest bakery in the world."
Beyond production efficiencies, the new facility also possesses eco-friendly devices designed to trim operations costs through "green" technology such as energy-efficient HVAC and plumbing fixtures capable of reducing water consumption by 40%. The site, which also has a 100% white roof to deflect sunlight and a cistern for use in on-campus irrigation, has been LEED-registered (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) with the U.S. Green Building Council.
Philadelphia-based Tasty Baking Co., founded in 1914 by Philip J. Baur and Herbert T. Morris, is one of the country's leading bakers of snack cakes, pies, cookies and doughnuts. The company manufactures more than 100 items under the Tastykake brand.
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