Janey Lou’s Inc. was already bustling when Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery arrived at the bakery’s Orem, Utah, production facility in November. Hundreds of freshly baked loaves of stollen—a bread-like fruitcake made with candied fruit and nuts—were cooling on racks. Nearby, the company’s bakers were busy mixing, weighing and placing more stollen dough on lined baking trays to age for a day. Elsewhere in the 15,000-sq.-ft. plant, thousands of its handmade Crispy Treats (made with marshmallows and that snappy, crispy rice cereal) were being automatically packaged on a horizontal wrapper and boxed by employees at the end of the line.
As with most wholesale bakeries, the upcoming holidays have kept the eight-year-old company’s production lines and its employees working overtime for weeks on end. “For the past three weeks, we have been at six [12-hour] days, and are looking at six 12s for a few more weeks,” explains Ryan J. Fillmore, president/CEO of Janey Lou’s, which sells frozen, ready-to-bake bagels, cinnamon rolls, cookies, Danish, dessert bars and donuts; muffin batters; icings; specialty breads; and individually wrapped Crispy Treats, Flavored Crispy Treats, dessert bars and brownies. “Typically, we run five 10-hour shifts.”