This is the sixth year that Go Nuts has had a presence at this annual shoppers’ paradise that officially kicks-off the holiday season for many Houstonians. At this year Market, over 323 national and international merchants were present, carefully selected for their unique offerings, including home décor, gourmet food, garden, clothing, sporting gifts, novelties, accessories and more. It’s estimated that more than 70,000 people attended this year’s market. For those countless shoppers seeking gifts of food, Go Nuts offered truly delicious tasting treats.

According to Kristy, they used approximately 600 pounds of nuts, including pecans, cashews and almonds, and 200 pounds of Imperial Sugar to prepare enough of their cinnamon-glazed nuts to meet the anticipated demand of shoppers.

“We were excited to have Imperial Sugar branding in our booth at this year’s Nutcracker Market,” said Kristy. “It was important to make our customers aware that our nuts are only made with the finest quality ingredients, which includes Imperial Sugar.”

Kristy adds that many of their customers at the Nutcracker Market are repeat customers who eagerly await the annual shopping mecca for the opportunity to purchase the cinnamon-glazed nuts. She believes that branding the booth and packaging with Imperial Sugar’s logo has increased their visibility at the Market.

All proceeds from the Market benefit Houston Ballet Foundation, Houston Ballet’s Ben Stevenson Academy and its scholarship funds. This year’s Market theme was “Toy Town Texas.”

Kristy points out that they will also be at the Houston Live Stock Show and Rodeo next March, so anyone that couldn’t come out to the Market has a second chance to “Go Nuts.”

Vicky and Kenneth Brown

Kenneth and Vicky Brown are the husband and wife owners of two popular, family-style restaurants in Savannah, Ga. – Sisters of the New South and Brown’s Family Restaurant. The restaurants have only been open since 2009, but many of the items on the menus have already become fast favorites among loyal customers. Delicious dishes like fried chicken, oxtails and candied yams, along with flavorful beverages like the sweet lemonade, have patrons coming back for more.

According to Kenneth, the reason for their success is that they offer great Southern cooking that a person would only get at grandma’s house for Sunday dinner. He adds that most of the items on their menus are made from secret family recipes handed down through the generations. “Our focus is to provide great tasting home-style cooking,” said Kenneth. “We are proud of the fact that all our food is made from scratch and we use only fresh, quality ingredients in our dishes.”

Since they call Savannah home, it’s no surprise that the Browns have a close connection with Imperial Sugar Company’s (ISC) Port Wentworth plant. Not only is the refinery located in the community, but Vicky’s father, Taylor Paul Reedy, was a longtime employee at the plant, retiring after an incredible 55 years of service. Kenneth points out that any item on the menu that calls for sugar is prepared with products made at the refinery.

In fact, the two restaurants use approximately 800 pounds of sugar per week. Kenneth shares that on a weekend it wouldn’t be unusual for the restaurants to go through 75 pounds of sugar in just one day. With a number of sweet items on the menu, it wasn’t long before Kenneth began to notice that many customers, especially the older ones, would ask for a smaller portion of the candied yams or the sweet potato pie because of the high sugar content.

“Oftentimes I would hear from customers, in particular those who are diabetic, about how much they love our candied yams but they had to pass it up because it had too much sugar,” Kenneth discloses. “I knew that we would be providing a service if I could find a way to make these dishes more suitable for those customers who wanted to decrease their consumption of sugar.”

It wasn’t until after his brother-in-law passed away due to complications from diabetes that Kenneth began to seriously look for a way to reduce the sugar content in some of the more popular menu items. Since the ISC plant was located nearby, it made sense to Kenneth to begin his search there.

He goes on to explain that he strongly believed that the ISC plant must produce a sweetener that is lower in sugar but also has a great taste. Not too long after he began his search, Kenneth was introduced to Gail Lange, New Business Manager for ISC.

Gail suggested that Kenneth try the new Monk Fruit Sweetener that the company recently introduced. She explained to him that the Monk Fruit Sweetener marketed by NatureWise™ combines monk fruit with pure cane sugar to create an all-natural, lower-calorie alternative to sugar with twice the sweetness and no bitter aftertaste.

Gail, along with Tennessee Hammond, Specialty Products Manager for ISC, worked closely with the Browns to develop recipes using the Monk Fruit Sweetener for the candied yams, sweet potato pie and the lemonade. The Browns are thrilled with the results and the response from customers has been overwhelmingly positive.

This November, as part of Diabetes Awareness Month, the Browns are giving back to the community by generating awareness for this chronic disease that affects millions of Americans. They are partnering the restaurants with a local radio station and are also working with a local hospital to provide a dietician and mobile clinic to visit underserved areas of the community in order to provide education and testing for diabetes.

“Our goal is to make more people aware of the risks of diabetes and ways to minimize the risks,” said Kenneth. “Therefore, we are pleased that the Monk Fruit Sweetener now allows us to offer reduced sugar yet great tasting versions of our most popular dishes.”

The man behind the candy is Stan Strickland. His story began in Woodbine, Georgia where his mother worked in a candy factory known for their Pralines, Log Rolls, Glazed Pecans, Peanut Brittle and Divinity. According to Strickland, “She was always making candy, especially during the holidays. She was an old-fashioned baker who measured with the ‘cup’ of her hand and always used the freshest ingredients.” For Strickland’s mother, cooking and baking were an art form, and it was working beside his mother that Strickland learned the craft of making mouth-watering, home-made confections.

It was over thirty years ago that Strickland decided to share his family’s sweet southern delights with others. He opened Savannah’s Candy Kitchen on historic River Street in Savannah. Visitors quickly discovered that his kitchen was the place to experience and taste authentic southern sweetness.

Strickland emphasizes that all of his confections are made with local, all natural ingredients to guarantee a rich, home-made taste. This includes sugar from Dixie Crystals, which has been a staple brand for many generations of families in the Southeast U.S.

“We are proud to use Dixie Crystals because it’s a hometown product with a long heritage here in Savannah,” says Strickland. “In fact, for many years I displayed bags of Dixie Crystals in my stores so that my customers would know that all my candy was made with the finest sugar available.”

Savannah’s Candy Kitchen uses so much sugar that it is delivered to its factory by tractor trailers. Strickland estimates that his company uses approximately 50,000 to 65,000 pounds of sugar per month. Most of the sugar used is white granulated but he points out that he also uses brown sugar to create some of his treats.

Because of its reputation, Imperial Sugar Company called upon Savannah’s Candy Kitchen to prepare special confections to sample at several recent industry trade shows and expos. Strickland’s kitchen prepared its legendary Pecan Pralines with Monk Fruit Sweetener and Peanut Brittle made with Steviacane®. Both of these new sweeteners developed by ISC are all-natural and low-calorie, and provide the same great taste of cane sugar.

“The candies were a perfect way to demonstrate to food manufacturers how our new sweeteners can be used to create delicious, lower sugar confections and desserts using natural ingredients,” said Gail Lange, General Manager for New Business Development for ISC.

Due the company’s ever-growing popularity, Strickland has had to expand to keep up with the demand for his candy. Today the company has four locations, with a fifth store scheduled to open in Nashville, Tennessee next February. It also boasts a 50,000 square-foot factory in Savannah. Strickland estimates that his stores average about half a million customers per year. He adds that his mail order division mails out two million catalogues each year.

Currently, Strickland is preparing for the upcoming holiday season, which is the busiest time of the year for his business. He indicates that he will add an extra shift in his factory to keep up with the demand.

Strickland concludes by saying, “You know, Savannah’s Candy Kitchen is very homespun and family oriented, so we consider ourselves fortunate to have a sugar refinery right here in our community.”

Go Nuts at Nutcracker Market

According to Kristy Allen, the company’s delicious treats can be found at local food shows and events in Houston, including the annual Nutcracker Market shopping extravaganza and the high-profile Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Go Nuts has been attending these well-known events since the company launched six years ago and has created quite a demand for their snacks.

Kristy is quick to mention that they exclusively use Imperial Sugar Extra Fine Granulated Pure Cane Sugar to make their nuts.

“In addition to being a superior product, we use only Imperial Sugar because we found that it has a tendency to melt and crystallize better than other sugars we have tried in the past,” said Kristy.

The company sells more than 500 pounds of pecans and uses between 200-300 pounds of Imperial Sugar at each of the Nutcracker Market and the Houston Rodeo. At both events, the nuts are prepared on site, filling the areas with the delicious roasting smell of the nuts. “You can smell our pecans the minute you walk through the doors of Reliant Center for the rodeo,” Kristy says proudly.

Kristy reports that they are currently working on a healthier recipe option for their nuts using Steviacane®, a new natural, low calorie sweetener developed by Imperial Sugar Company and marketed by Natural Sweet Ventures.

“We are asked all the time for low-calorie or sugar free selections of our cinnamon-glazed nuts, so we are really excited to have a product like Steviacane that will still provide a healthier option and still provide a great taste,” said Kristy.

Go Nuts recently partnered with Imperial Sugar and will feature the brand’s logo on all packages of nuts sold at the Nutcracker Market. “I know many of our customers will appreciate that we are highlighting local companies, like Imperial Sugar, that have brands with a rich history and long tradition of producing quality products.”

After years of family and friend testimony about how good her lemonade was, Syphfronia Triplett Garrett, known affectionately by her family as “Mema,” decided to market her lemonade. According to her grandson Joel Garrett, Mema has been making her popular lemonade for every family gathering, including Sunday dinners and holidays, for more than 40 years. It was a friend of one of her son’s, who like so many others, immediately fell in love with her lemonade after first tasting it, and who ultimately convinced Mema to share her lemonade with the world.

Mema’s Lemonade, based in Houston, Texas, is made with natural products, including Imperial Sugar, and contains no sodium or high fructose corn syrup.

But what makes Mema’s lemonade so special?

According to Garrett, “You go out there and taste a lot of lemonades and they’re either sweet or sour. What makes my grandmother’s lemonade so unique is that it’s both. You start off with a sweet taste but after a moment, your entire face will begin to pucker up from the sourness. It’s that intriguing blend of the two that make it so appealing to people because they can get their sweet and sour fix out of one cup of lemonade.”

One of the ingredients that is key to preparing her lemonade is Imperial Sugar’s white granulated cane sugar. Garrett offered that Mema’s Lemonade uses approximately 10,000 pounds of Imperial granulated sugar a month, impressive for a company that is less than one year old.

“We have tested every sugar we can find but Imperial Sugar is the only one that gives us the best flavor,” remarks Garrett. “We have tried using other sugars but can immediately taste the difference. Nothing compares to Imperial Sugar.”

The young company currently has seven distribution locations in the Houston area. In addition, four of the Fish Place all-you can eat catfish eateries in the Houston area also offer the beverage, including its FM 1960, Barker Cypress, Wirt Road and Southwest Freeway locations, with plans to expand to the chain’s other 15 restaurants.

“Although she doesn’t have to make the lemonade anymore, she sure puts us to work,” laughs Garrett about his grandmother. “We are thrilled that she enjoys staying involved with the company and likes to appear at events.”

Lange and a team of food scientists and members of the company’s research and development group have been traveling the country meeting with food and beverage manufacturers at food industry trade shows demonstrating the benefits of steviacane™, an all-natural sweetener that has one-third the calories of cane sugar but retains the same cane sugar taste.

Steviacane™ is by Natural Sweet Ventures, a collaboration between Imperial Sugar Company and PureCircle, and is produced through a patented process in which cane sugar and high-purity stevia, a sweetener derived from the leaves of the stevia plant, are combined into an easy-to-use granulated product.

Lange has had an opportunity to talk with producers of consumer baked goods, fruit and carbonated beverages, smoothies and other fruit-based consumer products. Imperial Sugar has seen a strong, positive reaction to a sweetener solution that can lower customers’ sugar usage and calories in their existing products.

“The response from customers and other food and beverage manufacturers has been incredibly positive,” said Lange. “Steviacane is very appealing to many companies because not only is it an all-natural, reduced calorie sweetener, but it has a great flavor, providing these food and beverage companies an option to better address the demands of consumers for healthier products.”

In order to provide customers with even more choices, Imperial Sugar developed several flavored versions of steviacane™, which include honey, maple and free-flowing brown sugar.

According to Lange, several companies are currently researching the use of steviacane™ in their products.

Virgil and Betty Cole

Imperial Sugar Company recently received a desperate plea from two loyal fans of Dixie Crystals. Virgil Cole and his wife, Betty, a retired couple living in Mountain Home, Ark., were having no luck finding the Dixie Crystals Free-Flowing Brown Sugar Shaker in their area.

Almost every morning, the couple would sprinkle the brown sugar over their favorite hot cereal – they eat five different kinds. They not only loved the flavor of the sugar but appreciated the convenience of the 10.5 ounce shaker.

The couple previously bought a case of the product, which lasted them for quite some time. However, about a couple of months ago, they used up their last shaker. With limited distribution of Dixie Crystals in the Mountain Home area, Mr. and Mrs. Cole searched numerous food stores but returned home empty handed. With no access to the Internet, the couple’s ability to track down the product was limited.

“We have used Dixie Crystals brown sugar on our hot cereal for many years,” said Mrs. Cole. “After we ran out, we really, really missed it. We tried other brown sugars but they left a lot to be desired.”

Finally, Mr. Cole decided to go directly to the source and contacted the refinery in Port Wentworth, Ga. where Dixie Crystals sugar products are produced. Mr. Cole spoke with George Hughes, senior buyer for Imperial Sugar Company. After hearing his plight, Hughes immediately sent Mr. Cole’s request over to the sales and marketing department who immediately shipped the couple a case of the Dixie Crystals Free-Flowing Brown Sugar Shakers made with pure cane sugar.

According to Mr. Cole, Dixie Crystals Free-Flowing Brown Sugar “is great for anything that you need brown sugar for. We especially like the fact that the sugar never gets hard like other brown sugars.”

“We always enjoy hearing from loyal customers like Mr. and Mrs. Cole,” said Hyuna Lee, senior marketing manager for Imperial Sugar Company. “When we learned how much they loved using our sugar and were having trouble finding it, we knew we had to help them out.”

Originally from Bloomington, Ill., the Coles moved to Mountain Home almost 20 years ago. The small town, located in the Ozark Mountains, is a popular retirement destination known for its scenic beauty. Mr. Cole retired from the Farm Bureau Insurance Company after 38 years of service. The couple has been married for more than 50 years and enjoys eating hot cereal for breakfast.

The company today is comprised of two separate manufacturing facilities, each specializing in making different candy. In 1983, Atkinson Candy bought San Antonio-based Judson Candies Co., now Judson-Atkinson Candies, which is another Texas-based institution that was started all the way back in 1893. Between the two facilities, they produce everything from jelly beans to flavored sours and marshmallow pieces to mints and peanut brittle – all made with Imperial Sugar.

The third generation of the Atkinson family – the brother and sister team of Amy Atkinson Voltz and Eric Atkinson – now run the business. She oversees the operations at the San Antonio facility while he manages the Lufkin factory.

Workers at the plants produce millions of pounds of flavorful sweets each year. Since every product the company makes is made with Imperial Sugar, it is no wonder they use an incredible amount of sugar. In fact, the company averages approximately 163,000 pounds of sugar a week between both locations.

“We are proud to be doing business with another Texas company,” proclaims Voltz. “I prefer to use Imperial Sugar because they not only provide a quality product but they have done a superb job of meeting our demands for a large supply of sugar and I also appreciate their competitive pricing, all of which are important to the success of our business.”

According to Bob Fleenor, National Accounts Manager for Imperial Sugar Company’s industrial sales group, “The products made at both locations are some of the finest quality candies in Texas and the global market as well. It is a pleasure to work with Amy and Eric and the entire team and we look forward to continuing our well established relationship.”

The company is most famous for its Chick-O-Stick candy piece, a crunchy peanut butter and toasted coconut candy stick. Imagine fresh-roasted jumbo peanuts sprinkled, while their still warm, with salt along with granulated sugar by Imperial Sugar in a process so superior, its patented. Candy makers take the concoction and form it into sticks that are a mix of peanuts and the crunchy candy. Then each Chick-O-Stick is dusted with freshly toasted coconut for a final product that is unique and irresistibly delicious!

“The best part of my job is going to the different trade shows and meeting with customers” exclaims Voltz. “ I enjoy people coming by our booth and tasting our products and hearing them comment ‘That’s the best I’ve ever had’.”

The sour ball is another of the company’s classics. It was J.W Judson who while trying to trying to make a more tart jelly bean, ended up inventing the “sour”, one of the company’s most popular items. The sour balls come in a variety of tempting flavors, such as cherry, raspberry, lemon, tangerine, grape, apple, watermelon and even pina colada.

So what mouth-watering new candy is on the horizon for the company? “This May we’re introducing an “extreme” sour at the Sweets and Snacks Expo in Chicago. This extreme sour will be geared specifically for kids and it’s sure to be a hit,” says Voltz.

Photo Credit: Matt Hoover

With help from Imperial Sugar, Bahama Buck’s last week topped off its three-day effort to make the world’s largest snow cone, creating a frozen treat weighing more than 25,000 pounds and raising more than $12,600 for children in Lubbock, Texas.

The world’s largest snow cone, which is pending certification by the Guinness Book of World Records, beat the previous world record holder by more than 20,000 pounds. At a height of 15 feet 6 inches and a final weight of 25,095 pounds, the yellow birthday-cake flavored snow cone, or sno as it is called by Bahama Buck’s, is expected to easily surpass the 4,604-pound record set in 2000 by Mammoth Mountain Ski Resort in California.

Imperial Sugar helped sponsor the event by donating the approximately 9,000 pounds of Imperial Sugar needed to create the 1,500 gallons of special syrup used to flavor the snow cone. The birthday-cake flavor was recently introduced by Bahama Buck’s to celebrate its 20th anniversary this year.

Photo Credit: Matt Hoover

“We are thankful that Imperial Sugar helped sponsor the Sno Angel Project,” said Blake Buchanan, president and founder of Bahama Buck’s. “We have been using Imperial Sugar in all our products for the past 20 years and we are proud to have them sponsor the world’s largest sno.”

About 1,000 customers participated in what Bahama Buck’s called its Sno Angel Project, benefiting The Children’s Home of Lubbock. Those who donated $10 or more received a snow cone and the opportunity to shave a 5-pound block of ice for use in the giant snow cone — an 11-foot-tall polyethylene tank in front of the shop.

Traci Cheek, special events coordinator for The Children’s Home of Lubbock commented, “Caring sponsors like Imperial Sugar made it possible for all the proceeds from the event to go directly to our organization and help support children in our community who come to live at our home.”

After the event, Bahama Buck’s gave away free samples of the World’s Largest Snow Cone, which was expected to feed more than 50,000 people.

Photo Credit: Matt Hoover

Founded in 1990 by Blake Buchanan, Bahama Buck’s Original Shaved Ice Company began as an entrepreneurial dream that that has resulted in an innovative approach to the dessert industry, offering guests a flavorful taste of paradise in an island inspired atmosphere.

Since its inception, the chain has been using Imperial Sugar in their concoctions, from their famous snow cones to their Island Smoothies, and continues to use Imperial Sugar at all its 18 Texas locations.

“Our mantra is Flavor Your Life, said Blake, who in addition to founder is the president of Bahama Buck’s Franchise Corp. “It’s who we are and what we do, so using Imperial Sugar has become part of our corporate standard in creating our products. We have tried using other sweeteners but they alter the exceptional taste that our customers have come to expect, so we choose to stick with the best sugar available.”

At the heart of Bahama Buck’s menu is its island inspired world famous snow cones known as “Sno” – shaved ribbons of soft, fluffy ice, generously showered with one of more than 90 proprietary gourmet flavors, including Pina Colada, Cotton Candy, Blue Coconut, Shrek and Tigers Blood, to name a few – all made with Imperial Sugar.

This December, to commemorate its 20th anniversary of business, Bahama Buck’s will attempt to set a new Guinness Record for the World’s Largest Sno Cone. The company has partnered with The Children’s Home of Lubbock to use this event as a fund-raiser benefiting “sno angels” – children awaiting families, foster kids, and foster care families. Imperial Sugar has joined the effort as a “World Record Sponsor” by donating 180 – 50lbs bags of sugar, which is needed to make the anticipated 1,800 gallons of syrup necessary to smash the current world record.

Blake has worked to keep the spirit of the original Bahama Buck’s alive, making sure that each franchise is operated with the same enthusiasm of the first Buck’s. He and his team strive to ensure that each flavor becomes a favorite, with a little help from Imperial Sugar.

Steviacane™ by Natural Sweet Ventures LLC, is a collaboration between ISC and PureCircle, a global leader in the production of high purity stevia products. San Antonio, Texas-based H-E-B, one of the largest independent food retailers in the nation, has agreed to be the first to introduce steviacane™ to consumers at select stores in Austin, Houston and San Antonio.

“We appreciate the necessity of working closely with trusted retail partners like H-E-B because they are a pipeline to our customers,” said Jeana Hines, Director over Consumer and Food Service Sales and Marketing. “By joining forces, we can build brand loyalty for Imperial Sugar products while providing our retail partners with innovative sweetener solutions that will appeal to their customers.”

The dynamics and complexity of today’s marketplace are forcing retailers and manufacturers to pursue innovative strategies to leverage growth by creating a better shopping experience for shoppers. Working together also makes it possible to develop better promotional vehicles, enhance in-store support, and develop innovative, value-added offerings for both parties.

Last year, ISC and H-E-B joined together to debut Imperial Sugar’s all-natural line of Baker’s Supreme Frosting mixes, which were enthusiastically received by customers who loved the rich and home-made taste of the frostings plus the total convenience of the product.

To support the launch of the all-natural sweetener and encourage trial by consumers, Imperial Sugar is working with H-E-B to coordinate in-store samplings as well as placement of a feature piece on the benefits of steviacane™ in My H-E-B Texas Life magazine, which is published monthly by the grocer.

H-E-B has placed its first order for steviacane™ and it will be available at select H-E-B stores beginning the week of November 8.

Source: Google Images

As Texas’ oldest bakery, Naegelin’s has been serving pastries and other baked goods to folks in this Hill Country town since 1868. The bakery is owned by the Granzin family who still use recipes developed by the Naegelin family, the original owners of the bakery who worked tirelessly for more than a century to get just the right ingredients.

Therefore, it’s not surprising that the bakery uses only Imperial Sugar products to sweeten its unique pastries and desserts. Like Naegelin’s, Imperial Sugar is a Texas native with a rich history and long tradition of excellence.

“We make one-of-a-kind products and demand only quality ingredients,” said Todd Granzin, owner of Naegelin’s Bakery. “We use Imperial Sugar because we believe it’s the best and it consistently enhances the great flavor that our customers have come to expect of our baked goods.”

The bakery is famous for their strudels that the founder Edouard Naegelin, Sr. perfected years ago. A turn of the century recipe, the apple strudel is over 2 feet in length and weighs approximately 4 1/2 pounds, with a delightful blend of apples and granulated sugar along with a touch of cinnamon, coconut, cherries, providing a wonderfully flavorful taste in a finely rolled puff pastry dough.

Other popular favorites made with Imperial Sugar include bear claws and Lebkuchen, a thick, rectangular brown cookie covered with pink frosting.

Imperial Sugar looks forward to supporting Naegelin’s Bakery in offering the best tasting pastries and desserts in the state for many more years to come.

Feedback from Hunts consumers said they want ingredients they can explain to their family, things that are familiar. That is why they trust Hunt’s ketchup, because it was already a simple recipe.

ConAgra Foods, one of Imperial Sugar Company’s top 10 industrial customers, has removed the high-fructose corn syrup from every bottle of its Hunt’s ketchup products and replaced it with liquid sugar from Imperial Sugar.

“It’s an example of the larger trend toward simpler foods and ingredients,” says Dave Jackson, manager of communications for ConAgra, one of North America’s leading food companies.

“We receive a lot of feedback from our consumers about what they prefer in their foods. One frequent comment was this: ‘I want ingredients I can explain to my family, things that are familiar.’ We knew we had an opportunity with Hunt’s ketchup, because it was already a simple recipe.”

A bottle of Hunt’s now contains only five ingredients: tomatoes, sugar, vinegar, salt and other seasonings, with no artificial ingredients or preservatives.

The reformulated product, Hunt’s 100% Natural Ketchup, arrived on grocery shelves in May, and early consumer feedback shows that the product is a hit.

“So far, consumer feedback has been very positive,” Jackson says. “It’s now a point of differentiation for Hunt’s ketchup that it’s made with sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup.”

For more than 20 years, Imperial Sugar has supplied ConAgra Foods with refined white sugar, brown sugar or liquid sugar for many of the food company’s brands, such as Crunch ‘n Munch, Banquet and Van Camp’s.

What keeps the supplier-customer relationship strong is Imperial’s ability to consistently deliver a great product, at the right place, at the right time, says Alan Reichmuth, director of commodity procurement for ConAgra Foods.

With the reformulation of Hunt’s ketchup, ConAgra and Imperial Sugar have found themselves collaborating in yet another way. When ConAgra Foods was building a storage tank for liquid sugar at its Newport, Tenn., manufacturing facility, the company tapped the expertise of Tom Wilson, Imperial’s technical services manager, to make sure the tank had all the proper specifications.

That’s the sort of above-and-beyond partnering that helps further cement the supplier-customer relationship, says Reichmuth. “Like the way Imperial can deliver a last-minute load of sugar when we need it,” he says. “It’s that kind of responsiveness that we count on.”

Major customers Sara Lee Bakery and Coca-Cola, parent company to Minute Maid, recently conducted two such site audits at Imperial Sugar Company’s Port Wentworth refinery, where they were met by Tom Wilson, technical services manager.

Tom Wilson, technical services manager, listens carefully to customer questions during an audit.

Because the refinery was essentially shuttered for more than a year, Wilson explains, big customers view it now as a new facility.

“A lot of people, including Coke and Sara Lee, want to see the changes,” says Wilson. “We’ve changed dramatically what our facility looks like, how we do things and the equipment we do it on.”

The audit process began with a 20- to 30-page questionnaire, in which the manufacturer first explains what he’ll be looking at and then asks about a supplier’s HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) program. “It’s one of the programs that most customers are interested in,” Wilson says. “It’s one way we can show we’re not posing a health hazard.”

Provides a Roadmap

The document provides a roadmap for Wilson, who serves as a liaison for all audits. He involves managers from shipping, human resources, operations and production to look through the document and prepare for what comes next – the site visit by the customer.

Now, smaller customers may be satisfied once a supplier successfully completes a detailed audit questionnaire. Larger ones, however, will ask to send an auditor to tour and inspect the site. Since the reopening of the Port Wentworth refinery, says Wilson, he has walked roughly 60 different customers through their audits.

What exactly do customers look for during an audit, which typically lasts a day or two?

They start by reviewing documentation – what safety programs are in place, who does what and when. Then, the touring group – Wilson, an ISC sales representative and the customer – walk the refinery to observe associates on production lines performing their jobs.

“Customers will either say, ‘It’s supposed to happen like this. I saw it happen, it matched the description, so I’m OK.’ Or, ‘It didn’t match, so explain to me why,’” Wilson says.

To get a complete picture of a facility’s operation, an auditor will view a process at various times. “If we say a process happens every two hours, an auditor will check his watch so he can go back and see whether it happens again two hours from now.”

Operators Must Know

An auditor also may engage directly with the operators in the refinery, asking, “Where is your critical control point? What does HACCP stand? What are you monitoring?”

Says Wilson, “If an operator can’t answer the questions, the auditor knows right away that here’s an issue.”

Anyone in the role of auditor typically has a sharp eye and a background in food science, chemistry or engineering. And, he typically wants to see more than a snapshot of a single day. He wants to get an historical perspective of the operations. .

“He may thumb through the past six months of documentation and single out a particular day when the operator wrote down a note about something unusual. That means we should have created a corresponding corrective action plan,” Wilson says. That’s a strand for the auditor to follow to the end.

In one case, an ISC operator noted that a metal detector wasn’t working correctly. The “corrective action” was calling someone in the electrical department, who determined the power supply was faulty. To fix the problem, an engineer installed a new power supply, then restarted the equipment and verified the detector was working by running tests.

“We had documented that process, so the auditor was satisfied,” says Wilson.

The rigor is important, he explains. As one major customer told him, “If we’re buying from you, and you do something wrong, by default, we’re an accomplice.”

After much documentation and many hours of work, the Port Wentworth refinery has passed its Sara Lee and Coca-Cola audits with flying colors, meaning “let’s start talking about what we can provide you, delivery schedules and pricing,” says Wilson.

“It means we can now get back to the normal course of business and supply two of our major customers.”