NEW YORK — A lack of production capacity meant the J.M. Smucker Co. had to hold its Uncrustables brand back. But with the completion of its third dedicated Uncrustables plant in McCalla, Ala., the company is set to unleash Uncrustables and extend the brand well beyond the traditional supermarket’s frozen food aisle.

Smucker’s management team faced several questions during the company’s investor day presentation on Dec. 10 from securities analysts about how much capacity the McCalla plant will provide.

“Honestly, the build out of capacity has been an intentional choice to make sure the capacity does not (become) a barrier to growth in the future,” said John Brase, chief operating officer. “Our capacity at McCalla has the capability to take us well beyond $1 billion in sales.”

With the new capacity, company management has begun to pull the levers that will help the Uncrustables business deliver on the goal of achieving $1 billion in sales by the end of fiscal 2026. Rebecca Scheidler, senior vice president of Smucker’s Consumer Foods business, said meeting that goal will come down to three fundamentals — brand building, distribution expansion and innovation.

“We’ve made significant strides in household penetration growth, adding over four million new households to the brand in just the last year alone,” she said. “That said, if you compare household penetration and distribution points of the Uncrustables brand to those of (its) primary frozen competitors, you’ll see that the brand still has significant runway ahead.”

Scheidler said another goal that is key to Uncrustables’ growth trajectory is to “win the lunchbox.”

“There are 11 billion school lunches,” she said. “A little over half of them are packed at home and, today, Uncrustables sandwiches are only in 8% of those packed lunches. Lunch is a perfect entry point for the brand, and we have a true competitive advantage.”

Innovation will focus on new flavors and the introduction of a seasonal platform.

“Why seasonals, you may ask?” Scheidler said. “Well, they contribute to growth for our brand in two ways. One, they expand the eating occasions for the Uncrustables brand by inspiring new usage; and two, they also drive trial across varieties that the consumers may not have even noticed on shelf. So, as we continue our quest to connect with our consumers’ daily lives in new and exciting ways, we’ll find additional occasions.”

But the key lever of growth of Uncrustables will be through distribution expansion.

“… Thanks to the acquisition of Hostess Brands we are now able to expand meaningfully into a new whitespace — convenience stores,” she said. “This new channel not only provides more availability for our brand, but it also unlocks the benefit of immediate consumption.”

Additional growth will come through growth in K-12 schools, said Tim Wayne, senior vice president of International and Away From Home.

“The completion of our third production location in McCalla, Ala., has now unlocked capacity to fuel further growth in away-from-home channels,” he said. “Historically, net sales for the Uncrustables brand have been split approximately 80% US retail, 20% away from home. But with increased supply, we anticipate that split could shift favorably to the away-from-home business. This demonstrates just how much opportunity we have yet to unlock in away-from-home channels.”

Mark Smucker, chairman, president and chief executive officer, said the company is on the cusp of “creating a truly iconic brand with widespread multigenerational appeal.”