BeeHex Automation: From NASA to the Bakery—Revolutionizing Food Robotics
BeeHex Automation redefines “putting the icing on the cake” in the most literal sense.
This cutting-edge, food robotics company is bringing automation to the bakery industry in ways that are both innovative and scalable.
BeeHex didn’t start out decorating cakes—it started by printing pizzas. Founded by serial entrepreneurs Anjan Contractor and Ben Feltner, the company’s early prototypes were designed to personalize food for astronauts during long-duration space missions. (Contractor brought deep engineering experience from his time at NASA.)
Fast forward to today and BeeHex has pivoted from space food to bakery automation. The company manufactures a wide range of equipment from high-speed decorating production line machines to Piper, a cake decorating robot in a retail kiosk that lets shoppers decorate blank cakes and cookie cakes within just a few minutes.
BeeHex: A Sweet Partnership that Fueled Growth
BeeHex began in Houston, TX, but after a chance encounter with the Grote family, food industry icons and founders of Donatos Pizza, BeeHex made a pivotal turn and relocated to Ohio. (Read more about that here: Columbus’ Backyard Connection Pays Off.)
The Grote family became a business partner and investor. BeeHex bought equipment, built machines, and bootstrapped the business. Prior to their move to Ohio, BeeHex use their 3D food printers to produce pizzas for catered events. Since the move, BeeHex engineers have performed contract work for NASA, the U.S. Army, and DARPA. The company built decorating machines for bakers that needed industrial level medium-to-high-throughput baked good decoration.
“We could have become a profitable small company that built custom equipment or cranked out cookies,” Feltner said, “but we wanted to grow and scale up.”
Then a very large bakery contacted BeeHex about making very small icing pieces to be put on cookies.
“That made us realize the potential across the whole industry of food decoration,” said Feltner. “We learned how hard it is to find the talent to do decorating and how it takes forever to be good at it. That started us down the path.”
Making Cake Decorating a Retail Experience
BeeHex designed and built the Piper, a small-form cake and cookie decorating machine, to fit in a bakery inside a grocery store. The team convinced Kroger—the fourth largest grocery business in the U.S.—to pilot the prototype.
“We increased store traffic, boosted sales of cakes, and took pressure off the store’s after-hours decorator,” Feltner said.
And BeeHex created buzz.
“At any time of day, a shopper can buy a blank cake and then write any message they want,” said Feltner. “It is a fast, fun experience. People stand there and watch. They come in from all over the state, and even from out-of-state, to have a cake decorated by the machine.”
BeeHex doesn’t just build the machines—it ensures they work seamlessly in stores.
“We do the assembly, fabrication, and testing,” Feltner said. “We can fabricate special parts here to fix what needs fixing. We walk each machine into the store and learn first-hand from every install.”
The BeeHex Piper pilot did so well that Kroger has installed 18 systems so far. There are several sizes of cakes available at the Piper kiosk and a catalog of 200 templated designs—from football logos to holiday and birthday themes. One of the most popular choices is a dog-pooping multi-colored confetti.
Scaling Up: The Future of BeeHex
“We have several things going for us,” Feltner said. “We have engineers who are strong on design and development, from R&D to full production. We have a revenue stream. We have six-year relationships with the companies who manufacture our parts, plus our relationship with the Grote Company with manufacturing capacity right next door.”
BeeHex technology is now operating across North America and Europe, setting the gold standard for food automation.
That’s putting icing on the cake, literally!
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