Cutting-Edge Cookies In Norwalk For Pepperidge Farm

We think about innovation centers in jet engine development, software and pharmaceuticals. But cookies?

Pepperidge Farm is unveiling its newly built innovation center at its Norwalk headquarters Wednesday, which will house the commercial baked goods giant’s R&D team of as many as 50 people.

The $30 million, 34,000-square-foot innovation center won’t bring new jobs right away, a spokeswoman said, but it will make the company more efficient as it tests recipes.

Campbell Soup doesn’t break out financial data for Pepperidge Farm, but Allen said sales topped $2 billion in the fiscal year that ended July 29 – for the first time.

“Right now we have to have a team go out to one of our plants and we have to shut down a line to test something,” Geri Allen said.

Pepperidge Farm, owned by Campbell Soup Co., has eight plants in the East, South and Midwest, including one in Bloomfield with about 275 employees. Its headquarters complex employs 400.

And now, those headquarters folks will have a cookie bar to visit, with free samples. Will it also serve milk? “I think it’s going to probably be BYOM,” Allen said.