I was excited to have the privilege of visiting Gardenia’s bread factory yesterday. The Philippines’ top brand in delicious and healthy breads conducted a bloggers’ plant tour for food and lifestyle bloggers. Interestingly, their plant is located along Star Avenue, LIIP Mamplasan, Biñan, Laguna, which is also from the south and near my place in Batangas.

Mr. Nestor Constancia

In the first part of the program, Mr. Nestor Constancia (Marketing and Sales Manager), shared Gardenia’s history and distribution system. We also watched a short AVP about the company’s processes and fully-automated machines. QAF Limited through Gardenia International Pte. Ltd. established Gardenia Bakeries Philippines Inc. In 1997 and started construction of its bakery plant in Laguna Industrial Park (LIIP), Biñan, Laguna. Operation started in 1998 with the state-of-art bread factory rated as one of the most modern large scale bread manufacturing facility in the country. Its highly-automated and major equipments come from bakery suppliers from Germany, Holland, UK and USA.

Gardenia Bread

Moreover, it now has the largest distribution network in the baking industry covering the whole Luzon archipelago; eastern and some western parts of Visayas including Mindoro, Panay, the Negros islands, and Samar; and even as far away as Mindanao. Their efficient distribution system utilizes a fleet of company-owned feeder and delivery vans, as well as the public Roll-On-Roll-Off (RORO) nautical highway system.

Afterwards, we began our plant tour. Once you enter the plant area, you’ll hear a recorded voice-over explaining the processes of each machine in each station. Here is the step-by-step procedures:

1.    Ingredient Preparation

Ingredient Preparation

2.    Sponge Mixing

Sponge Mixing

3.    Fermentation

Fermentation

4.    Dough Mixing

Dough Mixing

5.    Dividing

Dividing

6.    Rounding

Bread Rounding

7.    Intermediate proofing

Intermediate Proofing

8.    Moulding

Moulding

9.    Final Proofing

Final Proofing

10.    Baking

Baking of the Breads

11.    Depanning

Depanning

12.    Cooling (Top Photo)

13.    Slicing

Gardenia Bread Slicing

14.    Automatic Bagging

Automatic Bagging

15.    G-lock

G-lok / G-lock System

16.    Metal Detectors

Metal Detectors (staples) 😛

17.    Distribution

Gardenia Bread Distribution

It was an awesome sight to see the actual breads being made before you eyes, way beyond what the AVP can share.  However, we had to view it from a higher angle in an enclosed and air-conditioned viewing section intended for visitors. This is to maintain the quality standards of the factory.

A bread making demo using Gardenia breads, of course, and an open forum with Gardenia officers including Mr. Simplicio P. Umali Jr. (President & General Manager), Mr. Nestor E. Constancia (Marketing & Sales Manager), Ms. Cristina P. Domondon (Manufacturing Manager), Ms. Thea Tan (Marketing Manager), Ms. Merlie Barcelos (QA Manager), and Ms. Aine De Guzman (Nutritionist) followed the interesting plant tour.

Gardenia Plant Tour with the Bloggers

Let me give you some interesting points I learned from the open forum with the officers and this Gardenia Plant Tour experience:

• Gardenia delivers round-the-clock (24-hours) to ensure all convenience stores (or mini-stores) receive freshly baked breads everyday.
•  Gardenia uses a “G-lock’/’G-lok’ system that is distinguished with a color-coded scheme so that it will be easy to locate, open, and re-seal. The plastic clip also indicates the best before date as well as its retail price.
• Upon suggestion of the a guest, Gardenia may consider having a no-crust (edges) bread product in the future. But this merits a prior careful study and a lot of considerations including maintaining the quality of the bread.
•  Gardenia exerts efforts to be the environment-friendly by collecting old/left-over stocks of bread and gives them to fisheries for feeding.
• Gardenia incorporates big advertising banners and  posters on each company owned-feeder and delivery vans as a way of effective advertising in the field.
• It was also interesting to know that Gardenia is open to beneficiaries and discussions with charitable event/institutions in need of bread products.

Open Forum with Gardenia Officers

As their tagline “OH I LOVE GARDENIA! So good… You can even eat it on its own!” (masarap kahit walang palaman) suggests, Gardenia maintain its promise of providing the best quality breads to Filipinos in all possible aspects – freshly baked at all times, smells good, tastes even better, feels soft, and of course, nutritious.

It was an educational Gardenia Plant Tour experience indeed! For more info, you may visit the Gardenia website at http://www.gardenia.com.ph, ‘like’ their page on Facebook, follow them on Twitter, and watch their videos on YouTube.

*Contributed by Shekinah Armenta