CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT Just Born®

Just Born®, the candy company known for its chick and bunny marshmallow PEEPS®, says JLS® isn’t just a supplier for automated robotic solutions—it’s a valued partner.

“There are a lot of capable suppliers out there, but what really distinguished JLS is that they wanted to work ‘with us’ and not ‘for us.’ They are partners,” said Ross Born, CEO of the 98-year-old candy company when asked why they chose JLS to automate its production.

As it turns out, picking up a soft, sugar-coated marshmallow bunny is a real challenge. Thanks to JLS’ vision-guided robotic technology, combined with endof-arm robotic grippers from Soft Robotics, automating the marshmallow belt in Just Born’s Bethlehem, Pa., plant was possible.

“We weren’t looking for a machine to do a task, we were looking for a partner to help with factory automation projects to help us become better producers. The combination of technical expertise and partnership is why we chose JLS,” said Randall Copeland, Senior Vice President of Operations and Supply Chain at Just Born.

Born agrees that the level of service and how JLS presented solutions helped make Just Born’s largest investment even sweeter. “Craig and his team provided solutions, not problems,” he said. “We’re in the candy business, not in the machine business. They knew what we needed and backed it up.”

JLS® automated Just Born®’s PEEPS® marshmallow line and proved to be a true partner along the way.

JLS built and tested the entire line in-house before packing up nine trailer loads of equipment prior to final assembly and commissioning at Just Born in only 10 days.

“We’ve grown with JLS. They’ve helped us adapt our output to changing customer markets,” said Copeland. “They’ve demonstrated that they can take their base machine and expand capability in terms of the size, rates and mix of what we were packing, and that has great value.”

According to Copeland, the partnership between JLS and Just Born is due to a combination of communication, service and mutual respect. “One day, the phone rings and it’s Craig saying he has an idea of how we can get better service and be more efficient in providing it to us, and wanted to set-up a meeting with our maintenance team to talk about it. Do you know how wonderful it is to have a supplier that feels free to pick-up the phone and say let’s talk about a better way of doing things? That’s how true partnership works. It’s just that simple.”