PET Food Processing - March 2019 - 31

ALWAYS IN

SMALL BUSINESS MATTERS

season

Rapid growth for Millsboro, Delaware dog treat
bakery continues with help from Rondo.
By Jordan Tyler | jtyler@sosland.com

When Lisa St. Clair decided to start baking dog treats 16
years ago, production took place "in a shed," as she puts it,
in Millsboro, Delaware. Today, her company, Tail Bangers,
has grown from producing in a "shed" to four buildings
totaling 14,000 sq. ft. She employs 46 employees who
hand-cut, hand-dip and hand-decorate each product.
Tail Bangers has an Everyday Menu, including Doggie
Donuts, Canine Cannolis, Barkin' Biscottis, Twist &
Barks and other baked dog treats, but the heart of the
business is in its seasonal offerings. Seasonal products
are constantly coming in and out of the bakery displays - Christmas trees swapped for Valentine's cookies,
eventually replaced by Easter bunnies and eggs, and so
on. "That's part of the appeal of our bakery case - it's
constantly changing," St. Clair explains.
In an average day, Tail Bangers employees cut, bake
and decorate about 30,000 cookies and other products
and ship to wholesalers, pet retailers and specialty stores
across the US. With such high demand, St. Clair realized she needed something to improve efficiency and
increase her output. "We have grown by an average of
20% year-over-year," St. Clair explains. "We were having trouble keeping up with production because we were
cutting all of our cookies by hand."
St. Clair decided to contact Rondo Inc., a Swiss bakery
equipment supplier with a regional office in Moonachie,
New Jersey, for a sheeting and cutting solution. Rondo
invited her to test out some equipment, which was

crucial to the decision-making process because of the
unique thickness of Tail Bangers' dough. David Kollar,
regional sales manager for Rondo, worked with St. Clair
to find the right equipment for her products, ending up
with a Rondostar sheeter and a Polyline makeup line.
"The two machines provide excellent efficiency and
consistency," says Kollar. The consistency comes from
the computerized Rondostar reversible sheeter, he explains, because it performs reliably no matter who is
operating the machine. It is easily programmable, and
sheeted dough is automatically reeled onto a pin at the
end of the process so it can be easily transported to the
Polyline for cutting.
The electrical mechanical guillotine with stamping
dies on the Polyline provides clean, efficient cuts and
shapes. "There are no line stoppages or interruptions
that typically occur with the use of rotary cutters," Kollar
says, such as the dough sticking to the cutter and clogging the moulds.
Rondo designed custom stamping dies with spring
loaded ejectors for Tail Bangers that cut select products
that are staples of the company, such as candy canes at
Christmas and traditional bone shapes for personalized treats. However, most other product lines are cut
manually, after the dough has been sheeted and cut into
blocks, using custom hand-held cookie cutters.
St. Clair says the machinery has helped her run a
more efficient operation, while preserving a core part

Nearly all of Tail
Bangers' products
can be sheeted
using the Rondo
Polyline, including
its seasonal treats,
personalized bones
and everyday treats.
Sosland Publishing Company

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PET Food Processing - March 2019

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