CEO of local chocolate company stepping down
Wayne Zink of Endangered Species Chocolate will become chairman of the company’s not-for-profit foundation. Chief Operating
Officer Curt Vander Meer will replace him as CEO.
Food manufacturers
Articles
Harlan Bakeries planning $9.7M expansion
Harlan Bakeries plans to expand its Georgetown Road production facility by 65,000 square feet to make a new line of products—creating
43 jobs in the process.
Noblesville company has high hopes for pomegranate
Verdure Sciences, a botanical-extract distributor, has invested more than $1 million in marketing and research,
and hopes to see its product in more
foods and drinks, perhaps even mouthwash.
Dawn Food closing 160-worker bakery in Crown Point
Dawn Food Products Inc. says the northwest Indiana bakery will close in phases until being shut down by the end of August.
The Jackson, Mich.-based company says it decided to close the bakery to increase efficiency and that it would expand operations
elsewhere.
Edy’s ice cream plant to expand its work force
Edy's Grand Ice Cream expects to fill 120 full-time production positions — paying about $13 an hour — at its
Fort Wayne plant in the next three months because of demand for its popular Nestle Drumsticks.
Indiana food manufacturers ramp up safety precautions
The peanut-borne salmonella outbreak of 2009 raised awareness about the risk of illness from unlikely sources. Unfortunately,
that wasn’t the last time a seemingly innocuous ingredient made people sick, and prompted recalls.
Bottled-water company ramps up production in Plainfield
Niagara Bottling LLC recently hired 55 for its plant on Whitaker Road, which will make half-liter bottles of purified municipal
tap water.
Edy’s hiring 120 for Fort Wayne ice cream plant
Edy’s Grand Ice Cream says the new jobs are part of a company consolidation after an expansion of the Fort Wayne plant. The
hiring will increase the facilty’s workforce to about 600 people.
Three-year-old Carmel firm tries to distinguish itself in difficult candy industry
A local candy maker has found the sweet spot in an industry where startup efforts often go sour. Founded in 2006, Carmel-based
Candy Dynamics is making a name for itself with its unusual "double-action" sour recipe, eye-catching packaging
and unforgettable names like Toxic Waste Hazardously Sour Candy, Nuclear Sludge and Hi-Voltage Bubble Gum.
Hungry for growth, bagel maker tiptoes into healthy food segment
Since its founding 17 years ago, Indianapolis-based Harlan Bakeries LLC has built its reputation, and its fortune, on making
bagels. Untold millions of bagels. Considering the number of conventional treats Harlan turns out, it might be easy to overlook
its newest project: producing a non-medical “diet cookie” for Boca Raton, Fla.-based Smart For Life Weight Management Centers.
Proposals to loosen Indiana’s wine distribution system fail
At IBJ press time, the General Assembly was set to close another session without significant change to the state’s complex alcohol distribution system, ensuring another year of wrangling between wineries and wholesalers. A proposal to raise the direct shipping limit to 10,000 cases failed. So did a broader deregulation bill brought by a new Indiana wine drinker’s group, VinSense.
Indiana short on honeybees
A cold snap wiped out at least half of Indiana’s honeybee hives over the winter. For some beekeepers, the loss was as high
as 80 percent. Fortunately, most don’t look to bees for their livelihood.
Entrepreneur’s fortune cookie biz grows by breaking tradition
Fulfilling a wish list was how Mike Fry came to found Indianapolis-based Fancy Fortune Cookies, by all accounts the only non-Asian-owned
fortune cookie operation in North America. Fry started Fancy Fortune Cookies near Fort Wayne in 1989. He moved the company
to Indianapolis in 1992.
Chocolatier maintains steady routine between busy seasons
Each week at David Alan Chocolatier in Lebanon, three employees make a different variety of chocolate truffles, nut clusters
and other chocolate-laden delights. Alan uses 7,000 pounds of chocolate a year to make his products out of the renovated gas
station he has operated at since 1984.
156-year-old Clabber Girl rolls out new products
The 156-year-old Terre Haute company that quietly churned out nothing but its trademark baking powder for more than a century is now serving notice to General Mills’ Bisquick and other well-known brands that the status quo is dead.
Indiana’s Red Gold has become a tomato-industry big boy
Twenty years ago, the only thing coming out of Red Gold Inc.’s small Orestes plant was diced tomatoes, tomato sauce and tomato puree. The processor now makes products that sell in all 50 states and 16 countries under its brand or private labels.
Dow AgroSciences wants food industry to hunger for healthier deep-fryer oil
Dow AgroSciences LLC has brought on a team of people to push Natreon vegetable oil to purveyors of French fries and other deep-fried foods in the quest to eliminate much of the trans fat that now clogs arteries around the country.