A Beam of Light from BEMA’s Own

Intro/Outro (00:04):

It takes a bit of a blend of art and science to get baking just right and having extra eyes, ears, and hands can make a big difference along the way. That’s where AB Maori, north America comes into play. We are the team behind industrial and artisan bakers that help optimize success. We’ll discuss more on this episode of the Oven Light. So let’s get going. Flip the switch.

Rick (00:31):

Alright everybody, welcome back to the Oven light. I’m your host Rick Hoach from AB MA North America. Last time, if you recall, we doubled down on US baking professionals as our guest was Kristen Spriggs from the American Society of Baking. Prior to that we had Aaron Ball from Grain Foods Foundation as well. This time we’re going to stretch it into a triple with a third straight program with one of the finest from the US and Canada’s baking industry.

Rick (01:00):

This time we sit down and chat with the head of the bakery equipment manufacturers and allies known as Bema. It’s a key piece of the organizing body for IBIE and we’ve talked about that previously, the International Baking Industry Exhibition. And this guest has spent 20 plus years as the head of Bima had a cup of coffee as the former executive director of A SBA longtime marketing and communications manager for Schick Solutions. So we’re kind of built out of the same cloth that marketing and comms role. An ingredient handling system providers, which Schick is known for, has a master’s degree in marketing and he’s a music and even a fishing buff. He’s a fishing aficionado and so much more. Let’s welcome Kerwin Brown to the oven light. Hey Kerwin.

Kerwin (01:45):

Hey, thanks for having me. This is going to be awesome. I’m really excited

Rick (01:48):

And I just kind of realized as I’m saying the words fishing aficionado fish is kind of in the word itself. I mean, you know what wasn’t going to start with it, but let’s start with a good hook. Tell us about your best fishing experience Right off the bat.

Kerwin (02:02):

This summer I got to do some fly fishing with my son, my brother, and my son-in-law. So I always heard about those guys, family guys that go into the boundary waters or whatever and do that and I said we need to do that as the guys in our family. So we set that up, we missed, one of my brother-in-law wasn’t able to go, so we’ll try to get him next time. But up to Craig Montana, the epicenter of fly fishing. They have crazy, crazy rainbows there that are famous and they’re just hyper. They jump out of the water and it was amazing. We fished for two days and then did the Yellowstone tour for a day and it was really incredible. And the funny thing is we were floating down these amazing rivers. We were so focused on mend upstream men downstream that we mostly missed some of the most gorgeous scenery in our country, but we caught some fish, so that was probably more important.

Rick (03:00):

So let me ask you this. As a marketing guy, did you have bema branded waiters on? I mean is there an opportunity there?

Kerwin (03:07):

No, no, no, no. Waiters. We were in drift boats, but I didn’t even have a bema hat on or anything. But anyway, alright,

Rick (03:13):

We’re going to work on that. We’re going to work on that. Alright, so typically we start these things with a little bit of the hot pan. We kind of started with the hot fish grilling in a pan, but hey, quick questions, just kind of light in the mood. Haven’t asked this one in a long time and you’re the right guy. Do you consider a hot dog a sandwich and if so, why?

Kerwin (03:31):

I haven’t spent a lot of time thinking about that, but overall I would say no. But I did look up, there’s a national hotdog and sausage council. I didn’t know if you knew that or not. And they say no. And I’m a council and association guy, so I’m

Rick (03:46):

You’re going to go

Kerwin (03:47):

With, I’m going with them,

Rick (03:48):

I’m

Kerwin (03:48):

Going with the no. And I also would probably have a brought over a hotdog if it was my personal view.

Rick (03:55):

I like your style. Alright, so I’m sure you have a favorite little morning watering hole coffee shop that you stop at. What’s your order and maybe there’s a baked good next to whatever that coffee item is.

Kerwin (04:08):

There is, my struggle is the name Kerwin is such an unusual name that they never get that right. So I say ker and they don’t usually get that right. So I’ve kind of started saying Ker dog, which is one of my nicknames. Ker dog. Ker dog. So that’s what I put on my cup are they put on my cup Right now I’m a little bit of honey latte with a little caramel in it. And yes, if I’m feeling lucky, I’m getting maybe a croissant with some ham and cheese, warm croissant with some ham and cheese.

Rick (04:39):

All right. That’s pretty good. Well, I’m going to throw your name out because I’ve only met two kerwin’s in my entire life and I bet you can’t guess who the other is. A guy named Kerwin Bell, he was a Heisman candidate quarterback from the University of Florida. That was my freshman year incoming. And they had a campaign said for whom the bell tolls Kerwin. And they called him the throw in Mayo. He was from Mayo, Florida, like the mayonnaise mayo, but he was, and I remember his girlfriend who became his wife was Cosette and she was one of the gator dancers on the football field. Wow. Yeah. So there’s a little

Kerwin (05:14):

Did he play on, because I thought, did he play after that after Florida or did he

Rick (05:19):

Go into the NFL? He might’ve found some, I’d have to look that up. But he had quite the career in a gator uniform. He was something else. Awesome. Yeah. Okay, so last one of the hot pan here. What’s your favorite piece of equipment found in a commercial bakery? What’s bema approved that you’re like, man, I love seeing you’re walking on the floor of IBIE and you see this piece and you’re like, man, I can’t get enough of that.

Kerwin (05:42):

Well, it’d be like seeing which of my children I like better because we’re the equipment guys or we’re the supplier guys. So if you held me down and made me say, I might say just because it’s kind of where everything comes together, but you probably can’t tell anybody that because my non mixer members are going to get all messed

Rick (06:07):

Chris, we’re going

Kerwin (06:07):

To,

Rick (06:08):

We’re not really that. That’s good. Alright, now that we’ve warmed up, let’s get in the nuts and bolts this a little bit. So we’re not on an elevator, but we kind of are, we’re trying to get to a higher level, higher plane. So let’s start with Bema. Who are you guys? Give me the elevator speech on how you fit into the baking industry. I know you’ve got a century of involvement. Prior to the Allied being part of the equation, it was about the equipment manufacturer. So give me the scoop. What’s the skinny?

Kerwin (06:38):

Yeah, we’re certainly the supplier side of the industry, the supply chain, and I like to say we’re the connectors in the industry. I often talk about three relationships in baking. You have the supplier to supplier, which is pretty, that’s our members. You’ve got the suppliers to bakers, that’s the commercial side. You’re going to sell things. And then I think you’ve got the bakers to bakers. And I think we focus on all those relationships and I think connecting is, I always say is the thread that runs through every part of what we do. It was interesting, we just had our strategic plan looking at it in the next three to five years, just a couple of weeks ago and down in Dallas. And we have these pillars and we’ve had these pillars for about six years and we reviewed those pillars, we what’s our foundation? And one of ’em we really struggled with, we finally got it and we say we are about connection driven experiences and I love that phrase. And it doesn’t matter if it’s a regional dinner or if it’s IBIE or if it’s convention or whatever we do, connections are going to be that thread that runs through there and then we are putting all those people together, the suppliers together, the bakers together, and that’s where the magic’s happening. So

Rick (07:57):

I love that connection driven experiences and I can see how that’s a little bit of a challenging one to really latch onto and to solve, but it sounds like you’ve done it

Kerwin (08:07):

Right.

Rick (08:08):

Awesome.

Kerwin (08:09):

Well, and one of your questions was why does it matter? Why is beam a

Rick (08:13):

Math?

Kerwin (08:14):

And I think we matter because relationships and connections matter. And I’ve heard it said so many times in our industry, I’ve almost, my whole career has basically been in the baking industry, but people that come from other industries say there’s something unique about the baking industry where those connections and relationships I think matter more than maybe in, I don’t know, maybe more, I don’t know. But again, all I’ve known is our industry and I think they matter a lot in our industry and I think that’s been part of our success.

Rick (08:48):

So I wasn’t planning on asking you this, but I’m going to ask it now because you talk about relationships and those connections and talking about the world of ai, how important do you think it is to still have a little bit of humanity in this whole puzzle that we’re all trying to solve and trying to be as efficient as possible, productive, successful, but you’ve got AI on one end and then you’ve got the human to human contact than the other that you’ve been talking about, right?

Kerwin (09:15):

It’s interesting. I was just at a gathering in Chicago a couple nights ago with a bunch of people that run organizations and trade shows and all that, and it was just a dinner and we talked about the industry and AI came up and one of the leaders said, it’s a great time to be in our industry because with all the fakeness one, the information is now available and it’s going to be in a year or five years, it’s going to even be more available. But it’s that genuine people connecting. And also we’re going to be able to fake anything visually. We’re going to be able to fake any of us. But what is true and those relationships and those genuine connections I think are going to, they matter today and they’re going to matter I think even more in the future because it’s something that person to person interaction you can trust. I think it’s going to matter even more when all that is available.

Rick (10:12):

Well, you can’t fake that honey caramel latte that you’re talking about or that Hammond cheese croissant on a beautiful plate that you’re getting served. Right? You can’t fake an awesome baked good.

Kerwin (10:23):

You can’t fake that. And part of the reason, I mean, reason I go to a bakery shop or my little coffee shop is because the people behind the counter, and yes, that’s going to be a, maybe that’s going to be a robot one day and all that kind of stuff, but there is that human element is still king and I think it’s still going to matter long to the future.

Rick (10:46):

I love that. Love that thought. Alright, so you’ve been at Bema for quite a while now, I think in the intro, 20 plus years now. Why has this been the perfect fit for you and why does it have the staying power? Why do you have the staying power?

Kerwin (11:01):

I love that question. I do. I thought about this and I think helping and connecting people is at the core of who I am. I love it. Even if it doesn’t benefit, I don’t get anything out of that. I just love seeing people connect and find solutions and oh, I know someone that could help that person and all that. And so I think that’s really the heart of any association is because once you should be able to do that for your members and the people they serve and all that, you should be able to want and desire to connect people and help and stay out of it, but just help them and let ’em go on. So like I said earlier, we’re very relationship centric industry. I also like that bma, our convention is very family focused, so people bring their kids. My kids went when they were two and four for the first time. And I love that we have been a part of people’s families and we’re often their Christmas card because they take a family picture there and I know about people’s kids and they know about my kids. And part of that makes it a really perfect place for me as well just because it’s just, again, those relationships and those connections.

Rick (12:13):

You sound a lot like a guest. We had on the early years of the oven light, we had a guy, Mike Gutey from Soland who very much is a networker, a connector, and you guys are great orchestrators of what you do and making sure people feel connected and well received. So we thank you for that.

Kerwin (12:35):

He is in the Hall of fame, but then he also got our Fred Springer lifetime Achievement award recently. And I helped sort of craft some of the message that the guy read about him. And that was my add to that speech was he is the ultimate connector and he did it for no, not for his benefit. It was always for, and there’s countless people that will come up and go, yeah, when I was a student or when I first got in the industry, Mike grabbed me and pulled me into a reception and said, I want to introduce you to some people. And that’s what we need to be about. It’s not just about us, it’s about helping the next generation or new people in the industry or whatever to get connected

Rick (13:17):

To. We all love Mike, but he loves to remind us all that. He was a first ballot hall of famer. Mariana Rivera wasn’t even a first ballot. So it’s a fun, charming story. But alright. So you’ve seen a lot over a couple of decades. Are there some career highlights of maybe how Bema has evolved or even the industry evolved since? Go back 20 years, go back to the turn of the century. Lots happened.

Kerwin (13:43):

Yeah, for sure. So from BMA standpoint, I love how we’ve grown. When I first came, our convention was about just over a hundred people and an hour. It’s just about 500. And it’s not just the growth, it’s certainly the impact and the reach that we’ve kind of grown that to be and how it’s helped people in their careers and all that. We started something called BMA U and focused on education. We got bma, intel, those have been fun. BMA Connect is, we started Beam Connect about 11 years ago, I think 10 years ago. And when I first came there was no bakers at our meeting and then there was one or two and then there was 10 and then now there’s about 40. And it just definitely changed the dynamic. But this thing called BMA Connect is speed dating one of the mornings. And all the bakers and suppliers, they get to kind choose who they want to see and suppliers get to choose who they want to see. And that’s been a major game changer. Also, we did some international stuff. We’d go to different trade shows and put a pavilion together.

Rick (14:45):

Like you’ve gone to iba, haven’t you? Over in Germany.

Kerwin (14:48):

We did IBA and we’ve done Dubai and we’ve done

Rick (14:53):

Moscow. How we get a gig like that? How do we get to Dubai? My goodness.

Kerwin (14:56):

That’s good. Yeah, Dubai’s a pretty great place, but just trying to give our members an exposure to the European market or Moscow, whatever, and give them some exposure. And we kind of gave them some starter kits almost like, hey, we’re thinking about it, so how do we do that? And so that was really our focus on that was to give some people some exposure

Rick (15:20):

Tapping into that international thought. You can’t think that we’re all acting in a little bubble here. Things that happen overseas do affect us, whether it’s the products that we receive or maybe the trends, the consumer trends, the flavors. I mean, what’s the thing, you mentioned Dubai. The thing I’ve seen all over the place for the last few months is Dubai chocolate, right?

Kerwin (15:39):

It’s everything. It’s everything.

Kerwin (15:41):

Nothing besides Dubai Chocolate. That’s right. So my son works for Russell Stover, so I have to give a plug for Dubai chocolates. But I do think our world has become smaller. I spend a decent amount of time I get to go to different global shows and their issues are all the same, which is wild when they’re talking about we have it, blah, blah, whatever it is. It’s the same globally. And just the flavors and what you can get in the United States from any country and those flavors are becoming, and those tastes and those products are growing in our market. So we need to, I think that’s been one of the big changes too, is that we’ve gotten much more international than we didn’t know we ever had before.

Rick (16:31):

Alright, let’s talk about IBIE, right? We’re a few months removed now from mid-September. Great show. You’re talking 19,000 people. You had a ton of new exhibitors, if I recall, some great energy coming out of finally a clean one outside of COVID and now you’re looking ahead to 2028. Can you unpack that event for us a little bit and maybe even talk about the importance of working with both the A BA and RBA. You’ve got multiple associations putting that thing on. So help us understand IBIE and the

Kerwin (17:02):

Impact. I would say it is a interesting mix. Some shows are owned by a single association or whatever or and they’re owned by a big corporation or whatever, but we have this unique thing that says we’re going to do it as an industry A, B, A and BMA own the show, but we have this major partner called RBA and then we have some really talented vendors, large vendor partners because again, we’re associations that have to sort of balloon out to this. We’re running a major trade show, so we don’t have the staff to do all that. So we partner with some amazing partners and very long-term partners. Our partners have been with us for decades. So that creates this team. That is amazing. And then this committee, this IBI committee, we have it five BMA members, five A BA members. They’re sort of our governing body.

Kerwin (17:55):

And the chair of that committee switches every show. So one show, it’s the Baker and one show, it’s the supplier. And this year it was Jorge Zaha. I mean that alone, who we have on that committee are just the leaders, some of the major leaders in our industry. So they put their expertise and their footprint on the market into our show and what we’re doing and how we’re changing and all that. So I asked Jorge about it at the end of the show, just what he was proud of and he talked about the team. He said, we assembled this amazing team to help put this on. I am proud of our show in that it is the show where everybody feels like they need to be at from the smallest to the largest. There’s something there for you. And I love the passion of our show. You see the passion in our industry from the products that they’re making. I spend my days visiting many of the booths and trying every amount of baked good that I can, but that just comes in our influencers and our celebrities, from Duff to Buddy to all those. You see that passion and I think that passion and that drive and all that, and our whole world comes together in one place. And I think it’s amazing.

Rick (19:12):

It is really an interesting footprint. This is the first time we decided as a team, we collectively said, all right, we’re going to be in the West Hall, which has a little more breathing room, larger displays, larger manufacturers, and then you had the North hall that was, boy, it was compact and smaller avenues and street and thoroughfare, but boy, there was a lot of hype and there was a lot of energy and attraction going on. So it’s kind of an interesting dynamic and it’ll be interesting to see how that plays out again in 28. But congrats on

Kerwin (19:44):

Polar. Yeah, our show 20 years ago wasn’t very international and it wasn’t very retail and we put some real focus on growing those. We had what almost a hundred countries attend. The retail sector is thriving again with the influencers and all that and the competitions. And we have Coop Deman qualifier and all the World Bread and Penzone and all that artisan. And it’s a conglomeration of a bunch of things. So

Rick (20:12):

We’re going to mellow the mood a little bit. We’re going to go back to the hot pan questions a little bit. We already asked you about fishing, but I know another one of your passion points outside of work is music. And maybe do you have a musical act that maybe you saw? I’m only reflecting, we were coming back from visiting Ole Miss. University of Florida had their game there. Didn’t work out in our favor, but we visited Graceland on the way back. And to go through the history of Elvis is just unbelievable. It would’ve been great to appreciate that in person, but is there somebody like that that’s pinnacle, that you’re like, boy, I got a chance to see him and I’m so glad I did. And then double down first album, first cassette tape, something like that.

Kerwin (20:50):

Okay.

Rick (20:51):

I’m not going to say a track. I’m not going to say a tracker. We’re not going to go that far.

Kerwin (20:55):

Well, I’m all about the eight tracks. I really have a favorite. I really am always about the next one. This summer I got to see Vince gi. I was on the fifth row center of the Ryman Auditorium up and close seeing Vince Gill sing for three hours and playing

Rick (21:14):

His telecast. This is not part of the Eagles. This is him just seeing on his own. This is

Kerwin (21:17):

Him all by himself. I have seen him with the Eagles, but I mean I grew up in south Texas, so that country twang and Telecaster and all that is important to my soul or whatever.

Rick (21:29):

How good is that run?

Kerwin (21:30):

It’s amazing. It’s like the heart and soul of country music and it’s a very small, tight venue. I mean, we were right there especially so when I was a kid, I saw outdoor concert with my buddy all by ourselves, no parents, Fleetwood Mac, Pablo Cruz, Steve Miller Band. My first concert was probably, I think it was either Chicago or Aerosmith. I was a kid in the late seventies and early eighties, so Van Halen. But I do have a country bit too. I remember listening to the soundtrack of Urban Cowboy 1000 times and we didn’t buy albums as much back then, but often I would record music like Casey Cassons Top 40 or whatever on my cassette or eight track.

Rick (22:22):

You did mix tapes and then you did some mix

Kerwin (22:24):

Tapes and I was doing mixed kind of mixtapes. I mean it was ugly, but

Rick (22:28):

You hate that when you had to record and you’re listening to something and you’re like, dj, stop talking so I can get the whole song. They would talk too far into the intro and you’re like, come on. That was a

Kerwin (22:38):

Thing. You bought the double cassette thing so you could transfer and stop. Yeah, that was a thing. It was

Rick (22:44):

Kids days, kids these days. But it is funny. Cassettes are actually coming back a little bit. For a while there was the album generation and I’ve seen where cassettes are getting a little bit hotter again. I’m like, what people were going, people have actually, there’s a big story here locally where some families with younger kids, they’re not giving them cell phones, iPhones or whatever they want to use,

Kerwin (23:06):

And

Rick (23:07):

They’re installing home phones in the kitchen again and kids are talking that way and I’m like, wow. It’s kind of a weird flashback, if you will.

Kerwin (23:14):

Exactly.

Rick (23:15):

So let’s talk about podcasting too. You’ve got honor a roll, been lucky to be on your podcast. Tell me about it and what have you picked up from how many episodes? Give me the whole history. You do

Kerwin (23:25):

It. It was funny. I’ve learned that my first one, I think it was almost an hour, and they’re like, Kerwin, that’s not good. So I’ve struck mine down. I really love the heart of that is your journey. Our journeys, pretty much none of our journeys are straight. How you got to where you are, your journey about going through marketing and Anheuser-Busch and all that, and then you get to an ingredient yeast company. Like I asked Mike Cornells recently, who is a pan guy. I go, probably your guidance counselor in high school. You didn’t say, I’m kind of thinking about being an international pan salesman. Is that somewhere in my profile? And a famous quote I always used from Jorge Zada with Bimbo, he said he got a job out of college into Bimbo and it was small back then. It was like 17 plans. And he said, I’ll do this until something better comes along. I think that is often our story in our industry is people get in it and they’re like, oh, maybe you’ll say this until something better comes along and they’re still in it.

Rick (24:31):

That’s incredible. Okay, so you talked about a good quote there from Jorge. So what about any other books, business quotes, anything that’s topical, anything that you’re reading or maybe listening to in terms of a podcast or a program that maybe is inspired to you or something that maybe you can latch onto and pass along?

Kerwin (24:50):

Well, I thought about this and I’m a terrible reader. I have books and I read parts of them and I usually don’t finish them, but I will say that take time to be kind. I love that we’re in a time in our world where people aren’t the kindest and there’s so many different opinions. I’d say take time to be kind and especially to somebody that doesn’t look like you or doesn’t believe you. Because a lot of my time in my international travels, I would be around people and I’m like, I’m not supposed to like you because you are different and you’re from this country and all that and you hang out with them and they’re like, they got kids and hanging, and you’re like, we’re not that different. So I try to encourage myself and others to take time, just a moment to take time to be.

Rick (25:36):

You sure you don’t want to run for office or anything, Kerwin? I mean I’d vote for you based on just that last 30 seconds alone. Wow. It’s incredible. It’s incredible. Alright, so what are you thinking of? Right? We’re getting ready, Thanksgiving, Christmas holidays, all these things are going on and we’re getting ready for 26. What’s on your brain or what’s key for BMA as we look ahead and kind of switch the calendar over to the new year?

Kerwin (26:02):

I told you we did that strategic plan and I think our board released everything yet, but really took some bold steps. Can we do this and can we do that and can we do that? And so I think definitely more bold than I have seen in the last 20 years, and so I’m excited about work through some of those and we’ll see. But I am excited about, again, not ready to release ’em all, but we’re going to do a quarterly tariff update. Our members are getting some struggles around that. We’re going to add in an AI thing next year as well. People are just like, what is this and what am we doing all

Rick (26:39):

That, both of those

Kerwin (26:40):

Topics. Yeah, so we’re going to do have some experts, and my dream is to really let people interact with that person. It’s not just a one-way conversation. We really want these to be like 30 or 45 minute conversations with an expert and then go, I tried this and it didn’t work, or Hey, do you know about that tariff? Or how is that impacting stainless or whatever. We really want to give some people some resources and help ’em with their businesses. And those are too right now. Those are pretty heavy topics.

Rick (27:11):

Fantastic. Well, hey, if you’re tuning in here late, we’ve had Ker Dog. That’s a new nickname I just found out. Ker dog, Kerwin Brown, the head of Bema has been joining us from Overland Park, Kansas, and I tell you what, that’s it for the oven light this time around. Kerwin, thank you so much for joining. Really had a great discussion with you and look forward to working with you and seeing you in 2026. Thanks again. So for now, this switches off, so is the oven light. Thanks for listening and we’ll see you again soon.

Intro/Outro (27:42):

We hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of the Oven Light. Until next time, when we discuss more about the wonderful world of baking technology trends and more, the switch is officially off. Goodbye for now. See you next time.