Weaver Popcorn looks to the future with $22M investment
Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
The chief operating officer of Weaver Popcorn Manufacturing says the planned $22 million investment in the company’s Van Buren operations announced Monday will allow for more innovation and flexibility.
The popcorn manufacturer is using the investment to add new technology, an additional production line and 45 jobs, in addition to providing skills training to the company’s existing employees.
Tim Ingle said the investment could help move the company toward another goal of expanding into other parts of the snack market.
Ingle told Inside INdiana Business the expansion, which comes after just adding a new production line in February, brings multiple benefits.
“It’s not only giving us a big runway for growth and capacity for our sales team to continue to grow and expand the category, but it’s also going to upgrade a lot of the current full-time associates as far as them being able to level up into new jobs, higher paying jobs,” Ingle said. “It’s a great place to work, but now, there’s even more opportunities for those in the skilled trades, machine operators, learning new skills.”
Ingle said the upskilling effort is key to the investment, especially for many employees who have been with the company upwards of 40 years. But he noted it also creates great opportunities for the next generation of workers.
“For new people to come in and realize that even though it’s a food business, people may not realize or kids coming in out of high school or vocational schools or college, the amount of diversification just in these careers, whether you want to go into product development or fruit science or packaging engineering, or on the control side, or skilled tech,” he said. “[There’s] a lot of growth because of that.”
While finding the workforce to fill open jobs is always a challenge, Ingle said the company has worked to create a culture that is attractive to potential employees, including a 24/7 fitness center, tuition reimbursement, and flexible scheduling.
“We’re kind of the best kept secret in popcorn country here,” he said. “It’s certainly not downtown Indy. It’s not Chicago. It’s a little bit more challenging to find the best people. But I think when you look around and you see Fort Wayne, and you see Marion, Anderson, Muncie, people realize, ‘Wow in 30-40 minutes, I can get there.”
In January, the company was acquired by Florida-based AUA Private Equity Partners LLC. Ingle said the new owners are bullish about increasing Weaver’s success.
“They like to invest in high growth, medium-sized companies that are poised for growth, and they understand that part of the success is to invest back into the business,” he said. “It’s been just over a quarter with the new partnership, and here we are cutting loose with some significant investments to build upon the last two years. They’re excited to give us the tools to be able to do our job.”
Ingle noted the company is in a position to begin looking at diversifying operations outside of its existing footprint in the popcorn area, though no specific plans have been announced.