Girl Scout Cookie Baker Reportedly Struggling to Keep Pace with Demand

March 13, 2023

Mechanical issues, weather have kept Little Brownie Bakers from staying ahead of the curve in supplying cookies quickly enough.

Andy Hanacek

'Girl Scout Cookies - Thin Mints & Samoas'

Girl Scout cookies — the annually available, baked goods sold by Daisies, Brownies and other levels of the Girl Scouts of America — are designed to introduce scouts to sales and business skills and strategies at an early age. But this year, the Girl Scouts and their clients are getting an unexpected lesson in food processing and supply chain challenges.

According to reports, the bakery used by the scouts to produce the cookies for the annual program, has fallen behind on its production throughput, most recently set back even further by severe weather and subsequent power outages the weekend of March 5.

The Girl Scouts have grown frustrated with Ferraro-owned Little Brownie Bakers, which cited mechanical issues for some of the throughput issues. The news report goes on to state that this is the third year in a row that the baker has struggled to keep up with cookie production, though it has shipped more than 84 million packages of cookies to troops this year so far.

About the Author

Andy Hanacek | Senior Editor

Andy Hanacek has covered meat, poultry, bakery and snack foods as a B2B editor for nearly 20 years, and has toured hundreds of processing plants and food companies, sharing stories of innovation and technological advancement throughout the food supply chain. In 2018, he won a Folio:Eddie Award for his unique "From the Editor's Desk" video blogs, and he has brought home additional awards from Folio and ASBPE over the years. In addition, Hanacek led the Meat Industry Hall of Fame for several years and was vice president of communications for We R Food Safety, a food safety software and consulting company.