Gerald Peterson, Peterson Construction, Webster City, shows off Tic Tac Dough's newest cookie recipe, a triple-chocolate addition to the company's new line of cookies. Each of the company's cookie flavors is named for Webster City people, places or institutions. Peterson has worked steadily since 2017 to make the company a reality — and the first new manufacturer in Webster City in a number of years.

The names are familiar, but in a new way.

The “Mollenhoff” has M&Ms; the “Kantor” is a classic oatmeal-raisin mix; and the “Dragoon” is a blend of peanut butter, chocolate chips, oats and M&Ms, which everybody knows as a “monster.”

But Tic Tac Dough, the new bakery and shop at 1971 James Street, Webster City, which officially opens its doors today, reserved that ultimate Webster City name — The Lynx — for its new chocolate chip cookies.

After watching firms close that manufactured laundry appliances, central vacuums and other products for decades, Webster City is now home to a cookie factory.

It didn’t relocate from somewhere else; it’s a new home-grown venture owned by Webster City-based Peterson Construction Company.

Gerald Peterson explained how it came about, and the many possibilities in its future.

“I’ve worked in the construction industry my entire career,” Peterson began, “but we’ve always kept our eyes open for new opportunities. This one involves manufacturing and distribution of a new product for us: cookies. We began seriously thinking about how to do this in 2017. For a variety of reasons, both professional and personal, it wasn’t quite the right time.”

A key player in the new enterprise is Marcus Lundberg, whose full-time job is to manage day-to-day operations and steer the venture into the future. A computer science major at Iowa State University, Lundberg had a successful career as manager of a large-scale IT operation in Minneapolis. He met the Petersons at Clear Lake where both families shared a long-time interest in sail boats and sailing.

Lundberg justifies why he was able to make a major career change, saying, “the opportunities in this business are endless. It sounds trite, but it’s that old Iowa adage: “If you build it, they will come.”

Before any of that’s possible, though, Lundberg had to become the company’s expert on the complex, constantly evolving regulations that govern food safety in America. Lundberg: “I went back to school for six months to become FDA food-safety licensed. It’s essential in managing a business in which public trust is everything.”

With no direct experience in commercial baking, Peterson and Lundberg knew they needed outside, third-party assistance. They found it at The Center For Industrial Research and Service — CIRAS — at Iowa State University which, since 1963, has served as a sort of small business incubator.

In the last five years, CIRAS has advised more than 4,500 businesses in all of Iowa’s 99 counties in making the transition from idea to functioning business.

In the case of Tic Tac Dough, this meant creating a factory floor blueprint that would not only efficiently produce cookie dough, and finished cookies, but do so in a way that would pass FDA regulations.

Peterson said simply: “Working with CIRAS was invaluable.”

The business will be developed in three phases.

In phase one, which Lundberg called “a small operation with a local brand,” the company will begin making cookies on a small scale to perfect its recipes and baking process. The only sales outlet, for the near-term, is a counter in the lobby of the factory at 1921 West James Street. If you go in to buy one of the company’s eight present flavors — a ninth is about to be announced — Lundberg himself will probably take your order.

Behind glass doors, the company’s first two bakers, Brenda Hanlin and Tawnya Griffin, can clearly be seen making cookies.

In phase two, the company will scale up its ability to make cookie dough in commercial-sized batches. It already has mixers that can make 1,200 pounds of dough at a time, a quantity that could be shipped to commercial bakeries across the country to serve local markets.

Other phase two products include pails of premade dough that you can scoop and bake yourself at home, and pre portioned “cookie pucks” — or circles of dough — that don’t even require scooping. These would be sold to consumers.

All that’s needed for any of these products to ramp up is a launch customer; Lundberg is hard at work on that.

Phase three will see mass production of baked and packaged cookies for distribution through several possible channels, including grocery stores, restaurants and fundraising opportunities.

Somebody, after all, has to make all those cookies Girl Scouts sell every spring. Should a high-volume customer such as this come calling, Lundberg will be ready.

“We have equipment now to produce as many as 20,000 to 30,000 cookies an hour.”

Peterson thinks it’s likely that more than one route to market will develop into a sizeable business, perhaps simultaneously, and when it does Tic Tac Dough’s Webster City facility is one with lots of room for growth.

“We own a 45,000-square-foot facility which we believe can become the largest commercial bakery in the state of Iowa.”

Many kinds of cookies are sold in America today. Just look at the shelf space devoted to cookies in supermarkets.

When asked what the top-selling cookie in America is today, Lundberg didn’t hesitate. “It’s Oreos.”

Introduced in 1912 by the National Biscuit Company (Nabisco), more than 40 billion Oreo cookies are sold in 100 countries every year, making it by far the world’s most popular brand.

That’s not the market Tic Tac Dough is targeting with its first product line: the individually-packaged cookies named after Webster city people, places and landmarks.

“We’re a premium, hand-made, soft-baked, gourmet cookie,” Lundberg said.

The cookies weigh 3 ounces each and sell for $2.50. They are, in short, the kind of cookies many Americans may once have made at home, but few have the time, or experience, to make today.

The company is hosting a ribbon-cutting today at noon to officially mark the opening of the factory. You can buy Webster City brand cookies at Tic Tac Dough’s store from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday.