Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery was recently able to talk to Andrew Ly, CEO at Sugar Bowl Bakery, San Francisco, about best practices for food manufacturers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Liz Parker: How has Sugar Bowl changed its manufacturing practices to ensure the safety of employees while continuing product development? What extra procedures have been put in place to serve both the consumer and employee?

Andrew Ly: Sugar Bowl Bakery’s employees are at the heart of our company and are the number one priority during this time. We have implemented safety guidelines to ensure employee health such as daily temperature monitoring, social distancing enforcements, protected coverings like face masks and have provided paid leave for employees that are sick or high-risk. Our leadership team meets daily to discuss additional safety precautions and updates to state and local guidelines so that we can act accordingly. These precautions have enabled us to continue to operate at high service levels to provide our delicious, high-quality baked goods to consumers.

LP: How has Sugar Bowl strengthened its sales and product development team, without sacrificing the health of its employees?

AL: Sugar Bowl Bakery has continued new product development and innovation; we have seen growth as consumers are purchasing packaged, baked good items during this time where food service and out of home consumption is on hold. The team has worked hard on developing new products and lines to our existing products, such as Chocolate-dipped Madeleines, Cinnamon Palmiers and Party Cake Bites. As this trend continues, our sales and product development teams are dedicated to delivering the highest quality baked goods that bring joy to our consumer

LP: What are some best practices for running a successful food industry business?

AL: The secret to Sugar Bowl Bakery’s success has been our adherence to our values. Most notably, creativity in terms of our relentless pursuit of continuous improvement, and humility in terms of our listening to our customers to ensure we do everything we can to make our products the best on the market. One example of this is our Palmiers which deliver an authentic French experience with over 2500 layers of butter and dough. The research and development team worked hard with our equipment partners to ensure that our lamination process would deliver the leading product on the market. Their tenacity and drive to deliver the best tasting, highest quality products remain unchanged today as we develop additional new items.