Several months ago the Chelsea Milling Company — manufacturer of the famous Jiffy Mixes — completed a major renovation and expansion of its office, kitchen and tour facilities.  A few weeks ago my editor and I made a visit to CMC to gather information for an article on the new facilities.  Our tour guide?  None other than Howdy Holmes, the remarkably affable president of CMC.

First, though it wasn’t part of the renovation project, we walked through the plant.

The machines seen in the background have been around FOREVER.  Okay, not actually forever, but a seriously long time.  But while they may be old enough to be drawing Social Security benefits, they still do their job: folding the box shells around the wax liners.

Jiffy’s best-selling product is the corn muffin mix.  It dominates their sales so much that they have eight production lines and an entire room devoted to corn muffin mix.  Here you can see the famous little blue boxes on their way to be boxed and shipped.

Here, a member of Team Jiffy keeps the white frosting mix line moving smoothly.

After walking through the plant, Howdy took us through the new facilities.  The renovation and expansion was driven partly by CMC’s foray into the institutional market: they needed new R&D facilities to be able to compete in that market, Howdy told us.

A big part of the new R&D facilities is the pilot plant; above, Howdy is explaining the pilot plant to us.  With it, they can make small test batches of products; prior to the expansion, their test batches had to be significantly larger, making the whole process more expensive — especially when a batch wasn’t exactly right.

They also added a beautiful new kitchen.  While showing us the kitchen, Howdy told us Jiffy has been recommended by well-known chefs such as Rachael Ray and Paula Deen (click the links to see recipes with Jiffy recommendations).

Another feature of the expansion is a new conference room; surrounding the table are leather chairs, each embroidered with the two words nearest and dearest to Howdy Holmes and the Chelsea Milling Company.

Finally, the expansion added a brand-new main entrance for all visitors, be they visiting for business or for a tour.  I don’t have a photo of the old entrance, so you’re going to have to trust me: the new entrance is a major improvement.

Speaking of tour visitors: the new Jiffy building includes vastly improved tour facilities, and a completely revamped tour to match.  If you’ve never been on a tour of Jiffy — or if you haven’t been since the renovation — you should go!  You won’t see the kitchen or R&D facilities, but you will get to walk through the plant.  It’s well worth the visit.