1. 20 Friday,August 6, 2010. The Harvard Main Line .
'
MARKETPlACE
Pound Bakery's treats are" the eat's meow
-.,...
Inside, 20 employees work their tails
off to produce more than 5 million
pounds of gourmet animal treats a year.
The Strickers have been a proud fam - Their specialty is dogtreats, but they also
ily of bakers for four generations. Tony make food for cats, birds, horses, gerbils'
Stricker opened the Harvard Bakery in and other rodents.
1943, selling baked goods to customers. "Our treats are for people who look at
Today, not all Stricker Bakeries lure ingredients and labels when they pur-
human customers .in with a whiff of the chase treats," said Lexie Nebergall, sales
tantalizing aroma of oven-baked bread, rpanager of The Pound Bakery. People
buttery rolls or sweets. The Pound Bak- are becoming more conscious of what
ery, owned by Kurt Stricker, Tony's son; . they are feeding their pets; many people
bakes treats for man's best friend. ;will only feed their pets treats with natu-
After 20 years of working at the fam- ral ingredients. Other bakeries may use
ily bakery, Kurt Stricker wanted to start unsavory animal parts and byproducts
his own business. Be still enjoyed bak- to keep the treats fresh. The Pound Bak-
ing but wanted to break into, another ery does not.
market. Using the same process and The company uses simple ingredients
ingredients, Kurt went from baking like oatmeal, peanut 'butter and honey.
cookies for people to' creating treats Using these ingredients allows the com-
for dogs, pany to create treats for dogs with wheat,
Bakery life is hard, Tom Mackenzie, corn, soy and grain allergies.
plant manager of the production branch 'Each batch begins as a 250-to-800-
of The Pound Bakery, Pedigree Ovens,' pound inix of doggy dough. In one pro-
explained, "Most people go to the bakery cess, the dough is then put in a trough
and go, 'Oh, Doughnuts!' But they really and suspended above a cutting machine
,don't think about' all the hard work that using a crane. As the dough pours into
someone had to do the night before and,fhe cutting machine, it is 'slowly cut into
the morning they opened," he said, refer-' .rnany rows of dough drops.
ring to both human and animal treats. From there, the treats travel on con-
The company opened in a 4,000- veyor belts to be cooked by a Iong 170-
square-foot area of the Bowman Dairy" foot oven, At the end of the line, the dog-
Plant in 1997.It baked treats until orders gytreats are placed on a pan to cool.
increased to the point that it needed "This whole process (from cutting to
more space. Since then, the business cooling) takes 'about 17minutes," Neber-
has moved twice. It is, currently located gall.s aid.
at 495 Comanche Circle in Harvard. The ' Once the cookies are cool, they travel
new, 39,090~square-foot ,warehouse to the room next door where they' will
. houses both the ovens and distribution be packaged and shipped to the bakery's
side of The Pound Bakery. clients. - ,
By BENJAMIN WRIGHT
The Main l.ine
~
HML photo by Leland Humbertson
Marcelino Garcia, left" and Patricia Huicochea work to make pet treats at The !ound Bakery.
Many.of its 50 clients begin as small,'
homemadetreat-makers who gettoo big
for their kitchens:
"Many treat makers will create a lO-
pound batch of puppy chow and sell it
at small fairs with a business card. And
before, many know it" th~y will have
thousands of dollars of orders," Mack-
enzie said. "It's when they outgrow their,
kitchen that they come to us."
The company's largest client is PaT:
pered Pet, owned by Nancy Volin,Alpine,
.Calif, She sells Pedigree Ovens treats'
under her label in stores nationwide,
including in 75 percent of Costco's dis-
tribution areas. However, none of those
areas, are in Illinois.
To purchase treats' from The Pound
Bakery in Harvard, visit Pet Paradise,
360 South Division St. Suite 7.Treats can
also be found in local -Sentry's, Sullivan's
'and Woodstock Swiss Maid !3akery.
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