So it was a surprise to most local people when they announced a significant diversification of their business last fall, when their newest venture — Tic Tac Dough, a cookie manufacturing business seven years in the making, opened in Webster City. The reality is, they could have located the factory anywhere; and any city in Iowa would consider a new manufacturing industry a prize catch. But the factory came to Webster City.

Tic Tac Dough’s General Manager, Marcus Lundberg, said, “We did consider putting the factory elsewhere, but to be honest, when a very suitable facility, directly across the street from the rest of the Peterson companies on Webster City’s west side, became available, we saw many advantages to locating here.”

Lundberg explained it wasn’t the existing 15,000-square-foot former auto dealership building that attracted the company, “but the surrounding land that offers us serious room for expansion of the business going forward.”

And make no mistake about it: expansion is definitely in the company’s plans. The business will be developed in three phases.

-Messenger photo by Robert E. Oliver
Heavy-duty commercial mixers like this one are used to mix dough for Tic Tac Dough's Webster City cookies. The development of commercial customers and/or collaborators in dough production and marketing is a priority for 2025. The company's factory is located at 1971 W. James St., Webster City.

In phase one, which Lundberg calls “a small operation with a local brand,” the company is making cookies on a small scale to perfect its recipes and baking processes, and to develop a customer base. At press time, the only place you can buy the company’s cookies is at the factory store at 1971 W. James St., Webster City.

On opening day, Sept. 24, 2024, Tic Tac Dough offered eight cookie flavors, all named for Webster City area landmarks and other assets. The company’s newest flavor, a lemon cookie honoring Kendall Young Library, debuted in early February.

Where did that product line growth come from in just four short months?

As called for in its phase one growth plans, it came from Webster City. A big trend recently is offering local businesses custom cookies featuring their own name and logo.

All you have to do to get a dozen Goodlife cookies is buy a recreational vehicle from the Webster City dealership. In keeping with what most people use RVs for — travel — the Goodlife cookie has a s’mores flavor, suggesting an evening around the campfire in some gorgeous location in the mountains, by the seashore or along a lakefront.

Buying a new home in 2025?

If you work with Abens Realty, you can expect a dozen white chocolate and cranberry cookies at closing. Or, if your New Year’s resolution includes getting your financial house in order, by opening an account at Boone River Financial, you’ll be the proud owner of a dozen peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies. The local financial planning firm suggests, tongue-in-cheek all the way, they can help you “grow your dough.”

Two more promotional cookie flavors are in the works, according to Lundberg, and he predicts more beyond those. Lundberg says cookies are the perfect promotional item as “they’re edible, consumable and memorable.”

After four months of sales, Lundberg says there’s no clear volume leader among the company’s flavors, but “definitely no laggards either.” As to more flavors in the future, Lundberg said, “We’re here to make what people want in a cookie. We’re not going to run out of potential recipes anytime soon.”

In phase two, the company plans to scale-up its ability to make cookie dough in commercial-sized batches. It already owns large mixers, capable of making 1,200 pounds of dough at a time.

Other phase two products include pails of premade dough consumers can buy, scoop and bake at home; and pre-portioned “cookie pucks” that even eliminate the need to scoop. These could be sold in grocery stores and direct to consumers, from the company’s website.

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

The company’s 45,000-square-foot plant in Webster City has plenty of room to accommodate success in all phases of the business’ growth. A giant “tunnel oven” will be required to take Tic Tac Dough fully into phase three expansion, and when the time comes, the company will be ready. Space on the factory floor is already reserved for the 100-foot oven in which cookies will move on a conveyor, and an adjacent 250-foot conveyor to allow them to cool down.

At the end of their journey, they’ll be cool enough to package and ship.

For 2025, Lundberg says the company has two immediate growth goals: find more cookie sponsors in Webster City, and begin working with a yet-to-be-named collaborator on larger production batches. Of the latter, he said, “We have very strong leads nationally, and if any one of them comes through, it could ramp us up very quickly.”