Gardenia

Company Profile

Gardenia began as a humble in-store bakery in Bukit Timah Plaza ,

Singapore in 1978. Mr. Horacio Slocumm, the owner gets the name “ Gardenia “
from his favorite flower. Mr. Slocumm brought with him 35 years of baking
experience with one of America’s leading chain of bakeries then Gradenia was
born. For many years, Gardenia has been the market leader in Singapore and
has expanded its operations in Asia to other countries such as Malaysia and
Thailand, with the latest in the Gardenia chain of bakeries being here in the
Philippines in 1997.

In 2011, Gardenia opened its new bakery in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu,

producing a daily capacity of 50,000 loaves of bread serving the needs of the
entire province of Cebu and the Northern Mindanao area.

Product

Gardenia Philippines offers a wide array of superior bakery products

including white, wheat and health breads, flavored loaves, pandesal and snack
items like snack cakes, muffins and toasts. The most popular Classic White Bread
is cholesterol free and bromate free, has zero transfat, and is vitamin and
mineral fortified, exceeding DOH recommendations. The classic white bread is
made from Uncle Slocumm’s American recipe that’s really soft, great tasting,
smells good and nutritious. It also contains essential vitamins such as Vitamin A,
B1, B2, B3, C and minerals like Calcium, Iodine, Iron and Folate. About 50% of the
product is made from the necessary ingredients to make bread like wheat flour,
water, sugar, and salt. Its product slogan “So good…you can even eat it on its
own” best describes the product benefits. They only use high quality ingredients
for their products.

Process Strategy

In producing and manufacturing Gardenia Bread, the company uses

Continuous Mass Production Process. The breads are produce continuously in
high-volumes approximately 2000 loaves per hour and are make-to-stock
because of large inventories of final product. The process involves automated,
special-purpose equipment. It is a continuous process because the materials or
fluids that are being processed are continuously in motion, undergoing
chemical reactions or subject to mechanical or heat treatment.

Continuous usually means operating 24 hours per day, seven days per week
with infrequent maintenance shutdowns and the company operates 24/7

Facility Layout

Gardenia has a product-oriented plant layout, making the raw materials

and machinery follow the product path. In every stage of production the
machineries’ functions change and also the materials needed are added
simultaneously throughout the process. This kind of layout is seldom to be
changed.

Quality Management

Gardenia has been awarded with International Organization for

Standardization ISO 9001: 2000 certifications from 2003 to 2009 and has now
upgraded to ISO 9001:2008 in compliance with Quality Management System
and certification for product quality excellence. Moreover, Gardenia is HACCP
(Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) certified since 2003 to present—proof
of the company’s adherence to the systematic approach in the identification,
evaluation, and control of food safety standards. From 2004–2010, Gardenia
was accorded Superbrands status by Superbrands Ltd., an independent
authority and arbiter on branding. This award reaffirms that Gardenia has met
the stringent criteria of market dominance, longevity, goodwill, customer loyalty
and overall market acceptance. Another notable award is the Annual National
Consumers’ Award (ANCA) as the “Outstanding Bread Manufacturer” for five
straight years.

It can also be noticed that the Gardenia has a G-Locks in every bread
bags which aid in controlling the quality of their bread. These are color-coded
locks imprinted with the price, batch number for traceability, and expiry date
completes the whole package which ensures the freshness of every bread bag.

Human Resource and Job Design

Gardenia has 153 regular employees in different departments and the

others are contractual. The production area workers are required to be at least
high school graduate and willing to undergo training. The employees are sent to
the company’s modern manufacturing facility in Laguna for intensive training
especially on the most advanced baking technique, HACCP and ISO
procedures.

Location

Gardenia’s main branch is located at Laguna and the management

decided that it is strategic to put up a plant in Cebu specifically at Pajo St.
Lapu-Lapu City. This is done because the company does not want to
compromise the freshness of their products to be delivered all throughout
Visayas and Mindanao. The Lapu-Lapu plant now serves the bread requirements
of Cebu, Bohol , Butuan, Malaybalay, Iligan, Cagayan de Oro and Davao.

Inventory Management

The Company uses the First In, First Out Method of managing their
inventory since the Gardenia products has only a shelf life of one (1) week. This is
also to avoid any spoilage of their bread and to manage any costs. As soon as
products come out of the factory, delivery vans leave the production plant as
early as 4 o’clock in the morning to bring the products to specific locations and
replacing unsold breads in store shelves with freshly baked products.

Supply Chain Management

Pilmico and General Media Corporation are the suppliers of Gardenia’s

raw materials within the Philippines and the other ingredients are coming from
foreign countries like the raisins and chocolates for some of their products. The
finished products are distributed to their outlets, supermarkets and other retail
store all Visayas and Mindanao.

Scheduling

The Gardenia’s production area operates 24 hours a day for 7 days a

week. They have 3 shifts with 8 hours per shift to ensure that they can deliver
freshly baked breads to the consumers.

Maintenance

Gardenia currently adapts preventive maintenance wherein their facilities

and machineries are regularly checked and cleaned to avoid any over hauling
and unexpected shutdowns. Once in a month they allot a whole-day cleaning
and maintenance for the plant.