It was the volume of mail orders that convinced Robert product would sell on the mainland. Plus, the company started getting requests from people on the mainland who wanted to purchase King's Hawaiian's product in their stores. “My father always said Hawaii was too small to build a business because of the limited population,” Taira says. “And, he always had dreams of coming to the mainland.”

In 1977, Robert moved to California and built a 30,000-sq.-ft. facility in Torrance. At that time, the company had a single product line-its Hawaiian sweet bread, and not a single wholesale customer on the mainland.

High volume with efficiency

Efficiency and automation were concepts grasped early on by Robert Taira. “Back in the late ‘60s, early ‘70s, labor unions in Hawaii were becoming very strong,” Taira says. “My father knew labor was going to become more of an issue with businesses as the years went on. In his mind, he wanted to automate production and minimize the use of labor as much as possible. One of the most important things is to maintain consistency of the product. He had plans to come to the mainland and build a plant, so he bought some equipment to test out automation before we got here. When he came to Los Angeles, he wanted to build a facility that was fully automated-that didn't use a lot of labor. Today, I think we follow that same philosophy.”

In 2001, the company broke ground on a 151,000-sq.-ft., state-of-the-art facility. The plant, originally a Boeing aircraft facility, was leveled and designed from the ground up. “Mark and his team essentially worked 18 to 20 hours a day, almost seven days a week, trying to develop the right plans and the right flow patterns for the plant,” Weeda says.

The original 30,000-sq.-ft. bakery has been modernized and well maintained. “We put in new silos, new cooling towers and new conveyors, so we've done a lot of upgrades and PMs,” Weeda says. “We've been able to really keep that plant going, because at certain times of the year, we really need it. About 20 percent to 35 percent of our business occurs during the fourth quarter. We run about 105 percent capacity during the holidays,” Weeda says.

The new, larger facility opened in 2004. Although the breadth of products manufactured is small, volume is high. Products include the original Hawaiian sweet bread and rolls, honey wheat bread and rolls and savory butter rolls in various pack sizes (see sidebar).

Flour, sugar, butter and minor ingredients are scaled and conveyed to a dough mixing room. The dough is mixed and sent to the dough holding hoppers above dividers/rounders for rolls or a divider/rounder for bread where it's divided into specific weights. More than 6,000 lb. of dough is produced per hour, explains Stan Shaffer, vice president of operations. Each divider/rounder funnels into one of two lines-one line is a dedicated roll line and the other produces bread or rolls.

“King's Hawaiian's bread and rolls have a richness and sweetness that requires special attention to the process.” Shaffer says.

Rolls and bread are then conveyed into one of two proofers and ovens, and exit with a rich golden brown color that is continuously measured to meet our customer's requirements,” Shaffer says. One spiral cooling tunnel services the roll line and another the bread line. An extensive conveyor system supports three, product focused packaging lines-one line plus a spare for peak volume dedicated to 12-pack rolls; three lines plus a spare for peak volume dedicated to four-pack rolls and two lines for round bread and sliced bread.

A “green vision” initiative

King's Hawaiian recently launched its Green Vision sustainability initiative, a program it feels is in keeping with its native Hawaiian heritage. The company's environmentally-friendly endeavors range from a heavy focus on recycling to production line procedures to consumer awareness of sustainable practices. Its Green Vision logo and text directs consumers to the company's website, which features tips on recycling.

Employees proudly display a Green Vision patch on their uniform sleeves, and information about the program is provided in both English and Spanish. Every unused item in the plant is recycled, from plastic bags to the foil bread pans that don't make it through packaging. Unusable dough is given to hog farmers for feed.