Transforming Two Pretzel Brands & Products into One
How Intellex Food Engineering Expertise Supported a Salty Snack Expansion
THE CLIENT
A Fortune 100 food company.THE NEED
In its efforts to expand its salty snack products, one of the world’s largest food corporations acquired two pretzel brands. New to the pretzel space but old school in its commitment to the highest levels of food quality and consumer satisfaction, the industry giant looked to add pretzel-making expertise to its world class R&D team.TAKEAWAYS
The Expert Needed:
Senior Food Product/Process
Engineering
The Skills Needed:
- Significant pretzel-making process engineering expertise
- R&D leadership experience in improving food processing and products
- Food-based consumer product development and delivery expertise
- Experience leading food processing development for large-scale teams
- Expertise refining and optimizing food processing specifications from scaleup to commercialization
- Fluency in global Global R&D processing and technologies
Time to Placement:
2 weeks
Client Satisfaction Level:
Thrilled and ongoing (Intellex continues to provide targeted support)
THE SOLUTION
While the company’s R&D team had plenty of snack industry experts, pretzel-making was new to the organization. They turned to Intellex to find a seasoned pretzel production aficionado who could combine the two operations into one premium brand.
Intellex began by identifying every aspect of expertise, experience, and skill the organization wanted from a pretzel production expert, which included:
- Comprehensive expertise in all aspects of pretzel making, from formulation and production to testing, compliance, food safety, inventory, packaging, and distribution.
- Mastery of salty snack food processing with significant experience in pretzel making
- Experience aligning formulas and brands to develop one super product
- A successful track record of bringing world-class food products to market
The skills to guide and train the product team, ensuring they gain the pretzel-making expertise needed to bring product quality up to the company’s high standards.
Intellex was able to rapidly install a senior and highly sought-after food industry engineering expert whose experience included senior product research and development roles at FRITO LAY, Quaker Oats, Keebler, and Pepsico.
THE RESULTS
The Intellex expert hit the ground running. Over the course of three months, the consultant oversaw the rapid optimization and elevation of pretzel making across the company.
That effort included:
- Assessing and optimizing pretzel formulas and baking to ensure both top quality and cost efficiency
- Traveling to all co-packing sites to mitigate issues, train internal teams and co-packers, and instill best-in-class production processes
- Developing and launching a sustainable, top quality pretzel-making business ready to compete with the world’s top pretzel brands
Intellex and our food engineering consultant remain in close contact with the client and its pretzel brand, providing targeted knowledge and problem-solving on an as-needed basis.