David's Cookies made its name whipping up mouth-watering chocolate chunk delights starting in the late 1970s. The company has expanded far beyond that, in terms of baked goods and commercial property space.
At David's main manufacturing facility in North Jersey, workers sweep cookie dough into huge vats from enormous mixers. Molded into different shape and sizes, the treats move along an assembly line in groups, in most cases frozen and packed in boxes to be sent to their destination, where they will be baked. In another area of the factory floor, a new piece of equipment stuffs thin cookies with a filling — like jelly, peanut butter or chocolate — and they are made ready to ship out.
Then come the brownies. Their dough is spread across the bottom of cardboard boxes, which travel to an enormous oven that bakes them en masse — rows upon rows of them. They are then placed in a huge spiral freezer to cool down. After being cut into individual pieces, the brownies are packed into circular tins.
David's produces 6 million cookies and brownies a day, and the company is now enlarging its manufacturing operation in Cedar Grove. It invested $25 million to construct a 100,000-square-foot industrial building just across the way from its roughly 150,000-square-foot existing facility at 11 Cliffside Drive. The new state-of-the-art plant includes freezer space with a combined capacity of 6,000 pallet slots, a large cooking area, a dedicated research and development test kitchen, and new headquarters offices.
David's held a grand opening event at the new building Monday, serving up breakfast in a cavernous empty space for a large crowd that included employees and guests. Ari Margulies, president and CEO of David’s, and Lt. Gov. Tahesha Way were among those who spoke.
"This is a truly a big milestone for this company but it is also a great news for New Jersey's food manufacturing industry," Way said. "David's Cookies is one of the best-known brands and you are setting the standard. This location will help you to continue to deliver quality baked goods across the entire globe."
David's Cookies is growing at a time when the industrial vacancy rate in Northern New Jersey has ticked up a bit, now at is 5.5%, according to CoStar data. New supply totaled nearly 3.1 million square feet last year, down from the record of 4.2 million square feet posted in 2023 but more than double the five-year pre-pandemic average, CoStar said in a recent report on the market.
"This dislocation between supply and demand carried over into this year, pushing the average vacancy rate to 5.5%, still well below the national benchmark but a level not seen" since the third quarter of 2017, according to CoStar.
Cooked up in Manhattan
David’s, founded in New York City by chef David Lieberman in 1979, began franchising and at one point there were 25 David's Cookies stores in Manhattan alone, 75 in the greater New York area and over 150 additional stores worldwide, according to the company website. The business thrived until the late 1980s when increased operating costs forced many of the stores to close. The business was then purchased by Fairfield Gourmet Foods, a New Jersey based gourmet dessert company. David's evolved to become a wholesale dessert supplier, as well as selling goods online.
It began manufacturing operations in 1989 with just 8,000 square feet in Fairfield, New Jersey, and has since grown to include multiple manufacturing sites totaling 360,000 square feet in the Garden State, creating over 1,000 jobs there alone.
The combined Cedar Grove facilities, at 250,000 square feet, make up David's largest manufacturing location. The company also has two industrial facilities in Fairfield. It produces gluten-free, nut-free and dairy-free products at a 35,000-square-foot site in that Essex County township; and cheesecakes, cakes and muffins at a 70,000-square-foot location. And in Fairfield, Ohio, David's Foxtail Foods produces pies at a facility with about 130,000 square feet.
Mark Benichou, David's director of purchasing, was one of the company officials conducting tours of its Cedar Grove facilities. He estimated that 30% to 40% of the new building will be used for freezer storage, for cookies ready to be shipped.
"The freezer is such an important space," Benichou said. "We have to optimize the space so well for every pallet that we can fit in. If we don't have freezer space, we cannot work."
At the event, the township of Cedar Grove conducted a ceremony where Mayor Melissa Skabich renamed the street where David's Cookies is located, with it now called David's Cookies Way.