Baking & Snack - August 2014 - 24

SNAK KING

distribution costs as it expanded on a national basis and
nicely complemented Snak King's headquarters facility
(see "California roots" on Page 28).
With this perfect match, Snak King also acquired the
venerable Vitner's brand that had become synonymous
with snacking in Chicago over the years. The Vitner's
deal brought with it a direct-store-delivery operation
with 65 routes. "Vitner's has a pretty old brand, an 80plus year history that we were intrigued with," Mr. Levin
said. "We thought it would be a better business move
to buy an existing business and grow it than try to start
from scratch with a new facility."
During the past two years, Snak King incorporated
its corporate culture into Illinois as the two companies became one. "When you have two companies, you
have two different cultures, so we spent a lot of time
in Freeport helping them understand our culture,"
Mr. Levin said. "We want to make sure everyone who
works here knows that we care about them and we're all
on the same team."
Snak King upgraded Freeport's quality control systems as a part of more than $20 million in new equipment, expansion and upgrading of the operation. For
instance, the company recently added an ingredient
warehouse rack system to streamline production and
organize operations using 5S (sort, streamline, shine
standardize, sustain) where every piece of equipment
and every ingredient has its proper place.
"They had a lot of really good people there when we
took it over," Mr. Papiri said. "We've just helped them
bring a lot of the systems that we were further along in
and given them more support." During the two years
following the acquisition, Snak King showed that support by investing time and money in upgrading the
equipment, streamlining production and training employees to make the Freeport facility a mirror image of
its California sister plant. The Freeport plant currently
houses seven processing lines and single and twin tube
packaging lines to support it.

Taking on tortilla chips

After acquiring C.J. Vitner's business, Snak King continues
to expand production of the Vitner's brand, a local
Chicagoland favorite known for its conventional chips and
spicy extruded snacks.

24 Baking & Snack August 2014 / www.bakingandsnack.com

Under Snak King's leadership, the Freeport facility has
more than tripled its output, according to Mr. Levin.
Sales and volume for Vitner's brand potato chips
have doubled in the past year thanks to improvements
in product quality, packaging design, family-sized
bags and increased distribution. "Now, we're running 24/7 with three shifts operating, and we have 390
employees," explained Jorge Nava, the Freeport plant
manager. "We're one of the top employers in Freeport."
However, the bulk of this growth can be attributed
to the influx of Snak King products being made by
the Freeport facility. Before Snak King could relieve

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Baking & Snack - August 2014

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