The leaders at JTM Foods say they are the No. 1 handheld snack pie manufacturer in the world, making 78% more retail pies than the closest competitor. In addition to the company’s own JJ’s Bakery brand of pies, it produces private brands and co-manufactures pies for retail brands. JTM produces 5.7 million cases of product annually, making handheld pies, crispy rice treats, edible cookie dough, baked cookies, brownies and donut holes. 

The company’s level of automation in handheld pies is one of the reasons it dominates in this category. Monty Pooley, JTM president and chief executive officer, pointed to two things that set JTM apart from others.

“There have been others that have left the market because they could not compete with the automation,” he said. “That efficiency, that ability to make product, and do it at a low cost makes it difficult for others to compete with us. That is a moat. Our understanding of the category, how to move the category forward, our category management capabilities and the experience we have on the team — all those elements make the commercial function in JTM that second moat, that thing that differentiates us from other folks.”

Another differentiator is the company’s set of values and how they work to make that a part of everything they do.

“As you saw on the signs when you came in the building, respect, trust, teamwork, accountability, ownership and continuous improvement was a huge milestone for us and those values are gigantic to the entire organization,” said Joe Amboyer, senior vice president of operations.

These are values that the business adopted when Pooley joined the company, and he said it turned JTM from a manufacturing facility into more of a collaborative community.

“The cultural shift at JTM has been a big part of us being able to produce more, to produce more efficiently, to reduce waste, to allow people to grow their careers and be more successful,” Pooley elaborated. “All of those elements are an important part of being a good community citizen as well as being a good viable business. That set of values has played a significant role in evolving a culture.”

The workforce and labor pool available in Wichita was an attraction for JTM to locate there, said Kyle Hinsdale, JTM executive vice president and chief financial officer.

“You can build a nice facility and have all the nice equipment you want in it, but you still need folks to operate the machinery,” he said. 

The Wichita facility currently runs one shift five days a week and has about 25 employees. The new line is expected to add another 10 employees, but JTM is hoping to employ 200 to 250 once the plant is fully operational. JTM employs 270 at its Erie, Pa., facility and 81 at McKinney, Texas-based Cookies-n-Milk, the company it acquired in September 2022 that makes edible cookie dough, baked cookies, brownies and donut holes. 

Workers receive monthly online training about food safety and various other subjects, and supervisors and other leaders receive training for their roles. The company is dedicated to promoting exemplary workers as opportunities become available.

“We love promoting from within,” Amboyer said. “I started as a maintenance mechanic 25 years ago. Now I’m senior vice president of operations. … We find really good line operators, and we provide them with the skills to become leaders.”

Hourly throughput is tracked at JTM’s facilities and performance metrics are discussed daily, Amboyer said. 

“We know we’re going to have bad hours,” he said. “The goal is to have more good hours than bad hours. If we had a bad hour, what can we learn from that to get better on the next hour?”

Before Wichita started production, Plant Manager Cole Carpenter spent four months at the Erie facility learning the processes and equipment, spending time with the plant manager and maintenance team.

“I wanted to learn how the equipment runs so if my employee comes to me and says, ‘Hey we’re having trouble,’ I can help them out and get through the day,” Carpenter said.

The plant’s scheduling is done out of Erie, and the facility is cleaned after every shift. The plant is SQF-certified, has a HACCP team for the pie production line and is kosher pareve certified.

This article is an excerpt from the June 2024 issue of Baking & Snack. To read the entire feature on JTM Foods, click here.