ZoRoCo and Partake Foods: Partnership in Every Bite

Beginning in 2023, ZoRoCo launched an 18‑month installation that reimagined cookie production at the FreeFrom plant. A phased approach kept operations running while upgrades went in across existing lines.

At the heart of the new system is a large linear oven fed by automated depositors capable of handling thousand‑pound batches of cookie dough. Baked cookies cool and then wind around a horseshoe-shaped accumulation conveyor before flowing into two distinct packaging streams.

The first stream handles cookie trays. Ten Delta‑style robotic tray packers load cookies into 12‑count semi‑rigid trays, which are wrapped and cartoned into retail‑ready packages.

The second stream produces grab‑and‑go mini‑bags for vending machines, cafeterias, and convenience displays. On this line, cookies divert into stainless‑steel bins, ride bucket elevators to combination weighers, and then drop into vertical form/fill/seal (VF/F/S) baggers that create single‑serve packs.

Precision weighing

One of the stars of ZoRoCo's bagging line is the High Tek USA Model M16 multi-head scale. The 16‑head system portions 19‑gram bags, each with about seven cookies, with precision that manual methods cannot match at scale.

“The buckets are extremely accurate,” Barker says. “Adding that scale increased our throughput by 30 percent.” The scale feeds baggers at over 120 bags per minute, maintaining minimal variation in final weights.

Two High Tek weighers support the line, though typically only one runs at a time. The second unit swings in for variety packs that combine different cookie flavors in a single carton.

Stainless‑steel chutes are angled so cookies bump other cookies rather than metal, reducing breakage, while a vibratory hopper guides product gently into the weigh buckets.Baked cookies wind around on an accumulation conveyor.Zoroco Packaging

‘Let’s figure it out’

ZoRoCo has partnered with High Tek for more than five years—a relationship built as much on service as machinery. Barker recalls a recent project in which a different customer needed new capabilities from an existing High Tek scale.

“We called High Tek and they had a solve for us in two or three days, with a technician out here in a week,” he says. “That’s the thing we love about High Tek—you can call them with a problem, and it’s never ‘no.’ They say, ‘Let’s figure out how to do that.’”

High Tek’s responsiveness also comes straight from the top. Barker recalls how High Tek CEO Jason Sigman personally worked with ZoRoCo’s team to customize both the scale’s hardware and programming so it could handle delicate inclusions without damaging them. That level of hands‑on support, he says, makes High Tek ZoRoCo’s go‑to supplier for any application that demands speed, accuracy, and quick troubleshooting.

Values proposition

“We try to preach our core values in everything we do,” Barker says. “We look for customers who mirror those same values, so we do very little transactional business.”

Those core values ("Committed and Accountable, Knowledgeable and Experienced, Customer Focused, and Do the Right Thing") that appear on every ZoRoCo employee’s business card have not gone unnoticed by their brand partner, Partake Foods.

“They’ve been instrumental in helping us scale production without compromising on quality or values,” Beert says. “Their reliability, flexibility, and proactive approach have made them a true extension of our team.”

A growing market

The automated cookie line represents more than a single customer success; it shows how a contract manufacturer can help an emerging brand scale rapidly in a specialty food category. As the gluten‑free and allergen‑free market expands, Barker believes the future looks bright.

“We see nothing but positivity on the horizon,” he says.

With relentless attention to quality, a service‑oriented partnership with High Tek, and a values‑driven approach to every customer relationship including Partake Foods, ZoRoCo Packaging is poised to keep growing—one precisely weighed cookie at a time.