Baking&Snack - March 2013 - 36

SHEARER’S FOODS

Baking & Snack visited the Millenium
Plant this past fall. “You have to make
sure you can produce the quality
of products they want. You have to
‘wow’ them above their expectations.
As well, the consumer must think of
these products as something special.

“And despite all the automation
in the process, there’s an art to this,
too” he added. “I tell our associates,
‘You are the artisan of your product.’ In other words, ‘You have to
bring professionalism and creativity
to your position.’ We teach all our

Four automated batch kettles (each outputting 500 lb per hour) and one continuous fryer (4,200 lb per hour) occupy the spacious chip
kitchen in Phase II of the Millennium Plant. There’s room to add another continuous line and two more batch systems.
Blane Sutton

Winds of change
Startup of potato chip operations at its Millennium Plant marked a big
event in 2011 for Shearer’s Foods, Massillon, OH, but so did a change of
ownership in 2012. In August, Wind Point Partners bought the company,
closing the deal in late October.
The Chicago, IL-based private equity firm partnered with C.J. Fraleigh,
former CEO of Sara Lee North America, and he joined Shearer’s as its
chairman and CEO in November. With the acquisition, Bob Shearer, the
company’s co-founder, stepped down from those positions to pursue
other business interests.
“I’m very excited to be joining the team at Shearer’s, Mr. Fraleigh said.
”
“With the growth of private label brands and the trend toward outsourcing for branded food companies, Shearer’s is well-positioned to continue
its historical growth trajectory. I look forward to working with the company’s 1,850 employees to execute on growth opportunities we’ve identified
and continue providing Shearer’s customers with excellent service and
consistently high-quality products.
”
Mr. Fraleigh described Bob Shearer, the company’s outgoing chairman
and CEO as “a visionary leader who has created a great company and
team. He noted, as well, that Shearer’s is the largest producer of private
”
label salty snacks in North America and the largest producer of kettlecooked potato chips in the world.
Mark Burgett, a Wind Point managing director, said, “We are excited
to partner with C.J. and Shearer’s existing management team to execute
on the growth and operational initiatives that we have identified
for Shearer’s.
”

/ Baking & Snack / March 2013

people to treat every product as if it
went out under our own brands.”
The company’s “move forward”
manufacturing philosophy is completely customer-driven, according
to Mr. Shearer. “And the business
just keeps coming,” he said.
Supplying
those
customers
prompted Shearer’s to establish the
new plant at Massillon. Managers
call it their Millennium Plant because not only is it located on
Millennium Road but also they
created it to take the company into
the 21st century — the new millennium. (See “Shearer Determination”
in Baking & Snack of September
2010, Page 48.)
The Millennium Plant fits Shearer’s manufacturing priorities perfectly. “We always want production
to be ahead of sales,” said Melissa
Shearer, the company’s former vicepresident of communications.
Steve Surmay, Shearer’s senior vicepresident of manufacturing, quantified that reason by saying, “As a general rule, we try to get to 85% capacity
and then think about adding more.”

Continuing into Phase II
Shearer’s delayed less than a year
between Phase I and Phase II at the
Millennium Plant. Managed as a
fast-track project, Phase I took just
nine months, but Phase II required
10. “We had to work around production,” explained Ken Brower, the
Millennium Plant’s director of operations. They also installed a second
high-volume tortilla line in Phase I.
“Phase II addressed additional
capacity, this time for potato chips,”
Mr. Surmay said. “We started at 15
million lb in 2010 when Millennium
was commissioned with one tortilla
line. Now, with the second tortilla
chip line, the six hand kettles and
one continuous chip line, we’re at
120 million lb of capacity.”
At that rate, Massillon’s output
equals that of the company’s larger
Brewster facility. There’s still enough

www.bakingandsnack.com

http://www.bakingandsnack.com

Baking&Snack - March 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Baking&Snack - March 2013