MULTI-MARQUES opted for two IJ WHITE SPIRAL COOLING SYSTEMS to efficiently handle the high volume of buns it bakes.
Multi-Marques named its large 5 1/4-in. specialty bun Le Gros - French Canadian that translates roughly as "Da Big" or the big one. It's a name that also suits the company's new bun plant. In capacity and capability, the new bun operation truly is "the big one." And while Quebec satisfies its new passion for barbecue sandwiches with Multi-Marques' big buns, the bakery's new bun plant positions the company to expand its supermarket and food service business.
The bakery designed its bun mixing, makeup, proofing, baking, spiral cooling, packaging, controls and scheduling systems for peak efficiency when making retail cluster buns and hot dog rolls but with enough flexibility to produce food service, niche and short-run items.
The new bun facility, a C$20-million (US$14.4 million) expansion of the company's 2 5 0,000-sq-ft bakery at Laval, Que., in suburban Montreal started up this spring. The showcase bun line employs a robotic pan system - the first of its kind - to keep up with.twin high-tech bun makeup systems, and dual spiral cooling systems. Output can climb as high as 1,500 pieces per minute, depending on variety.
Now swinging into three-shift, 24-hour operation for the summer months, the bun line completes the
IJ White Spiral Cooling Systems
third phase of MultiMarques' plan to upgrade wholesale manufacturing operations inMontreal, its headquarters city. Investment to date totals more than C $50 million (US $38 million).
"We have to be high-tech to be competitive in this market," said Gerald Pelletier, president ofMulti-Marques, Inc., about corporate choices that created the Laval bakery.

AVOIDING LIMITS. Six years ago, MultiMarques executives saw changes coming in Quebec's wholesale baking industry. They made manufacturing and distribution plans to meet the forces of plant consolidation and

 competition. They also wanted to offer their customers fresher products and operate at the lowest cost possible.

The first decision was to centralize distribution for Montreal-based operations. An industrial park in Laval, a fast-growingm suburb just north of Montreal, offered the best logistics. The first phase, the new distribution center with more than 100 docks, went on-stream in 1988. Then the company expanded Laval by opening a 86,400sq-ft bread plant in 1992 capable of baking one million loaves a week. Buns were next.
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