Actually, multiple experiments, every day, all day.
“Apparently the thing to do back then was to drink buttermilk, and it was sweeter,” Nestle Professional marketing manager Todd Muller said. “Then they added crackers and apple pie and sandwiches, and here we are 100 years later.”The original dairy stand at the Arcade in downtown Cleveland. Stouffer’s path is a quintessential business-buyout story: In 1967, Stouffer Foods merged with Litton Industries. In 1973, Nestle S.A., bought Stouffer Corp. from Litton. Nestle S.A. eventually would buy Litton in 1980.
He paraphrased Vernon Stouffer’s philosophy, saying, “Hey, if you’ve done it at one restaurant and you’ve got all your details and procedures, why not roll it out the same way at every other restaurant?” That equipment accommodates “plug and play” capabilities to allow for appliances to be switched out, based on who the customer is.
Many of the brainstorming starts in the ‘ideate’ room. The room resembles a lecture hall but has a high ceiling –higher-than-normal ceilings yield a “psychological freedom” to think more creatively. That process is necessary when it comes to Stouffer’s being able to consistently produce more than 100 products.
A sophisticated receiving dock is used because so many ingredients come in regularly. And a pilot plant is equipped to produce larger batches of a product that might have to be scaled up. “What’s interesting to me is how much food stays the same – lasagna, mac and cheese – these are just staples of Stouffer’s and have been for a long, long time,” Muller said. “Food trends come and go, but what we do is innovate - how do we change things a little bit within this? How do we catch up on some new trends? We went from a traditional yellow mac and cheese and now we have a white cheese offering with cavatappi noodle. People love it, it’s familiar - with a twist.
“What’s nice is they both are in a growth mode,” he said. “Swagelok just built a global headquarters. Nestle continues to grow and expand, and during the pandemic Nestle was basically feeding the world over the last few years. They are great local partners. Even during the pandemic Nestle brought frozen food to our senior center, they packed it up, and then they delivered it to seniors who are home-bound.