American Sprinkles Manufactured in Montville

A little more than six years ago, the Brockmann brothers, Bill, Bob, Doug and Ken, noticed a void in the sprinkle market. They noticed the sprinkle void because Bill Brockmann owned a Carvel Ice Cream store.

The four had been searching for several years to find a food item they could manufacture.

“Food is recession proof,” explained Ken Brockmann, vice president of sales for American Sprinkle Co. “No matter what’s happening in the economy, people still have to eat. Sprinkles are a cheap treat, really.”

To realize their dream, the Brockmann bothers founded the American Sprinkle Company, on Riverside Drive in Pine Brook. Together they manufacture sprinkles for ice cream and baked goods like cakes and doughnuts.

According to the company’s website, they “knew that sprinkles should not only look good, but should taste great as well. Dissatisfied with what was available, they searched for years before rediscovering a recipe for making sprinkles that traced back to Europe.”

“We wanted to get into the manufacturing end of something,” Ken Brockmann said. “We noticed there was a void in the sprinkle industry and a confectionery item seemed like a good fit.”

When Bill Brockmann owned his Carvel store, the sprinkles supplied at that time by the Carvel chain were bland. In searching for a tastier sprinkle, the brothers realized sprinkle manufacturers were using starch in place of real sugar and cocoa was all but missing from most chocolate sprinkles.

American Sprinkle Co. uses real cocoa and sugar.

Today, the more than 500 Carvel Ice Cream stores, as well as the Carvel cakes sold in more than 8,500 supermarkets nationwide, feature sprinkles made by American Sprinkle Company.

“It smells great when you open a package of our chocolate sprinkles,” Ken Brockmann said. “We use real cocoa in our chocolate sprinkles. They are our signature item. They have a gourmet taste but, they are not gourmet priced. All of our sprinkles are competitively priced. It’s because we are not a big conglomeration. We are a small family run business.”

In addition to chocolate and rainbow colored sprinkles, American Sprinkle Co. also manufactures colored sugars, non-parells, and sugar shapes for a variety of seasons and holidays. The company even produces custom blends of colors for colleges and teams, or other large events that bakeries wish to feature.

American Sprinkle Co. only sells to distributers. Those distributers, in turn, may or may not package the sprinkles for retail sale. Mostly the distributors who purchase from American Sprinkle Co. supply bakeries with sprinkles for use on finished baked goods. They also may sell sprinkles to ice cream stores.

“We don’t directly do any retail,” Ken Brockmann said. “Our minimum order is 2,000 pounds of sprinkles. Most of the time we ship out tractor trailer loads of sprinkles. Each tractor trailer holds 42,000 pounds, or 22 pallets, of sprinkles. Some people buy five pallets a year, and others buy a truckload a week.

“You’d be surprised,” he added, “people go through a lot of sprinkles.”

American Sprinkle Co. can produce 30,000 pounds of sprinkles in an eight hour shift. For much of the year they run two shifts per day, preparing for whatever season or holiday is approaching.

American Sprinkle Co. sells sprinkles to companies that sell sprinkles to companies that make products that are sold in stores like Walmart, Target and A&P.  

They also ship sprinkles to South Korea.

“We met our South Korean clients at the international bakery show in Las Vegas,” Ken Brockmann said. “They stopped by our booth looking for a quality chocolate sprinkle product. No other sprinkle on the market tastes like ours. They placed the order right then and there.”

And with that American Sprinkle Co. became an international supplier of sprinkles.

Fourteen people work each shift in the sprinkle factory. 

According to Brockmann, the secret to great sprinkles is shape, shine and ingredients.

In order to create a nice shape and finish for their sprinkles, the Brockmann brothers designed and built most of their machinery themselves. The specialized equipment allows the product to be shaped to stick to icing or ice cream easily. The machinery also provides a glistening finish.

For flavor the American Sprinkle Company uses real ingredients.

The most skilled laborers at American Sprinkle Company are the panners. Two panners per shift are employed to man the twenty pans in the factory.

“We train people to be good panners,” Ken Brockmann said. “To be a decent panner, it takes six months. It’s takes skill. Every pan is different. Panning is the part of the manufacturing process that you can’t outsource. You can’t get a machine to do panning. You can’t take human beings out of the process.” 

Six months ago, American Sprinkle Co. launched a new product: Non-hydrogenated sprinkles that are free of Trans fats.

“Last month, Walmart announced a new policy that any finished baked good they sell must be completely free of hydrogenated oils,” Ken Brockmann said. “We are ahead of the trend on that.”

Due to the success with the new Trans fat free sprinkle, American Sprinkle Co. recently moved from the northern end of Montville Township, to a larger manufacturing space across Route 46 in Pine Brook.