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.

Under sunny skies, ISC associates, with their children and grandchildren, toured the amazing zoo to view thousands of exotic animal species from all over the world. Afterwards, the group was treated to a “feast among the beasts” that featured a delicious lunch of beef and chicken fajitas served with assorted sides and toppings, including Spanish rice, ranchero beans, pico de gallo and, of course, guacamole.

ISC CEO John Sheptor was on hand entertaining the children with amusing guessing games. He surprised the children by separately calling up groups of girls and boys to “Guess” the mystery animal. In both instances, it took a number of guesses before the lucky girl and boy received their prize for having the right answer.

Prize winners Michael Bentley and his sister Samantha Bentley pose with John Sheptor

 The winners were both grandchildren of employee Mike Bentley, Senior Manager of Technical Services for ISC. Michael Bentley, age 7, received a bag containing an assortment of plastic zoo animals while his equally perceptive younger sister Samantha Bentley, age 4, received a stuffed giraffe for correctly guessing the mystery animal.

During his company address, Sheptor welcomed the group and thanked all associates for their continued dedication and hard work. He outlined priorities and projects for the coming year and expressed confidence that his talented team has what it takes to get the job done.

Toward the close of this unforgettable day, prize drawings were held for all associates.

Imperial Sugar Company's Bake It Forward Program

Called Bake It Forward (BIF), this community-oriented, brand-building program developed by Imperial Sugar Company (ICS) will connect people all over the world through the sharing of baked treats.

“The focus is on acts of kindness,” said Hyuna Lee, brand manager for Imperial Sugar. “Sharing food is an expression of love and a way to show affection. We want to provide a way for people to get credit for what they’re already doing and multiply their good deeds by encouraging others to get involved.”

Here’s how the program works. Imperial Sugar is providing an initial allotment of cookie tins and sugar coupons to its employees. Acting as brand ambassadors, employees fill the tins with home-baked treats and send them to anyone, anywhere they wish. Recipients are then encouraged to pass the favor on. Those who choose to “bake it forward” will be offered coupons for sugar and use the same tins to ship their baked goods.

Before shipping a tin, each baker is asked to register the tin’s unique ID number on the “Bake It Forward” website and provide the name of his or her hometown. As each tin is registered, a map on the website shows their various locations, allowing participants – and visitors – to track how far reaching their efforts are. So, if a tin ends up in Iraq or Australia, for example, a participant would be able to track that.

The “Bake It Forward” website also features a video about the program and enables participants to share recipes and upload photos of the items they bake. As an alternative, Facebook users can register tins and follow the program on the company’s BIF Facebook page.

“We want to see where their good efforts are leading by tracking the cookie tins,” said Lee. “We believe those who catch the spirit will feel good about how far their tins have traveled and realize their efforts are really paying off.”

New tins will be available for sale as the program grows. According to Lee, the first goal is to pick up 10,000 participants and Facebook followers. The program and website – www.bakeitforward.com – are set to launch the first of October.

“Sheila’s focus is conserving resources, whether she’s developing to ways to minimize air emissions or reducing waste in packaging materials,” explains Christine Knezevich, ISC’s Environmental, Health, and Safety Manager.

One of Scott’s first assignments was to oversee the installation of a new air monitoring system for the four steam boilers at the Port Wentworth refinery. The new instrumentation will enable much more sensitive and accurate monitoring of the presence of greenhouse gases.

“This is all part of our awareness about global warming and our commitment to do our part,” Knezevich explains. The new measurements will allow the boiler operators to optimize boiler operations.

She expects air-monitoring results to show that emissions are well within regulatory requirements. Unlike many other types of plants, part of the carbon dioxide generated by Port Wentworth’s boilers is captured and recycled back into the refining process to make a filtering aid.

In the years to come, Knezevich says, she expects Sheila Scott’s role to become even more critical, as the company invests to reduce water consumption and the recovery of additional biproducts.

A pallet of steviacane™ is ready for shipping to grocery store shelves.

Steviacane’s debut is Monday, November 1, on HEB grocery store shelves in Houston, Austin and San Antonio. Gerdes sees that as just the beginning for consumers who today are demanding a natural sweetener with fewer calories.

Steviacane™ has twice the sweetness of natural sugar allowing consumers to add half as much as they normally would use and achieve the same sugar taste as they are accustomed to. In addition, if used per instructions, steviacane™ adds only 1/3 the sugar calories of natural sugar.

Steviacane™ is made with all natural cane sugar and natural stevia. Gerdes observed that there are many stevia products available to consumers today but emphasizes that this is the only stevia product that he has tested that tastes like sugar.

It bakes like sugar and sweetens beverages like sugar with the the attributes that consumers seek – “all natural”, “cane sugar taste” and “less calories.” Gerdes expects this product will receive a high level of satisfaction from all who try it.

The roll-out of steviacane™ will be in a two-pound canister and a box with 40 steviacane™ sticks. The sticks are similar in idea to traditional packs of sugar but with a big difference – one teaspoon of steviacane™ contains only one-half a teaspoon of sugar specially blended with stevia. Stevia is a natural sweetener derived from the leaves of the Stevia plant.

Darrell Gerdes, Imperial Sugar's Manager of Research and New Product Development.

Gerdes says he has never before been a part of such a fast and efficient new product launch – from development in February, through extensive third-party product quality testing and evaluation, unique packaging, and, finally, launch in November.

Steviacane™ was evaluated by sensory panels of trained experts in Chicago, comparing the new sweetener against sugar and other sweeteners on the market. The panel testing followed food industry standards and included a list of taste descriptors. The result was thumbs-up for steviacane™ by the experts … a genuine sugar taste.

Meantime, Imperial Sugar Company’s sales team is actively working to get steviacane™ on other supermarket shelves nationwide soon after the HEB launch.

Steviacane™ by Natural Sweet Ventures is a collaboration between Imperial Sugar Company (ISC) and PureCircle.

Consumers initially will find steviacane™ in two forms: a two-pound canister for baking and other bulk usage and as a 40-count pack of steviacane™ sticks.

Imagine baking your favorite dessert or sweetening your favorite beverage with that same cane sugar taste that you enjoy but with two-thirds less calories. Consumers will have a chance to do just that with the fall launch of the new all-natural sweetener steviacane™ by Natural Sweet Ventures, a collaboration between Imperial Sugar Company (ISC) and PureCircle.

The easy-to-use, granulated sweetener uniquely combines high-purity stevia – a natural sweetener derived from the leaves of the Stevia plant – with pure cane sugar in a patented, proprietary process.

“Our objective was threefold,” says John Sheptor, Imperial Sugar Company President and CEO.

“Produce an all natural sweetener that could be substituted for sugar in baking and beverages that: (1) gave the consumer cane sugar taste and equal sweetness with less added sugar, (2) contributed less calories and (3) provided a great tasting stevia option. Steviacane™ meets all three. This is a significant advancement in sweetener technology. It is an all-purpose, healthier, all-natural alternative with a great taste.”

Darrell L. Gerdes, Ph.D. and manager of research and new product development for ISC , led the development of the all-natural steviacane™.

Darrell L. Gerdes, Ph.D. and manager of research and new product development for ISC , led the development of the all-natural sweetener. He explained that steviacane™ tastes and performs like sugar but with two-thirds fewer calories.

“Basically, we’ve taken two natural sweeteners and combined them in such a way as to produce the sweetness and great taste of sugar using less product,” says Gerdes.

“A half cup of steviacane™ has the sweetening strength of a full cup of sugar, and one stick of steviacane™ (or a half-teaspoon) is equivalent to one teaspoon of sugar,” says Gerdes.

Capitalizing on the popularity of natural based products, steviacane™ was placed on an accelerated product development cycle that began earlier this year. More than 100,000 pounds of steviacane™ were produced recently at ISC’s sugar refinery in Port Wentworth, Ga.

According to Thomas Rathke, senior director for ISC heading up research, engineering and specialty products at the Georgia plant, the first production run went smoothly. “We actually ‘de-bottlenecked’ the plant during our initial production campaign,” he says.

The product will be shipped off in 40-pound bags and 2,000-pound totes for retail packaging later in September.

Consumers initially will find steviacane™ in two forms: a two-pound canister for baking and other bulk usage, and as a 40-count pack of steviacane™ sticks. The items are targeted to hit the shelves of select Texas stores November 1.

Any major production plant, such as Imperial Sugar’s state-of-the-art sugar refinery and production plant, routinely faces glitches and challenges. The goal is a frontline workforce capable of finding the root causes of process problems and quickly bring improvement. “At the end of training, we’ll have lots of people well-versed in troubleshooting,” says Refinery Manager Jim Flynn.

Simon Keighley of Hagen & Company works with Imperial associates to significantly increase productivity through problem-solving techniques.

An initial foray into training began in February of this year, when consultant Simon Keighley from Hagen & Co. arrived at the Port Wentworth refinery to train a team of eight associates in a problem-solving technique called “Control Factor Analysis,” which falls within the Define Measure Analyze Improve Control (DMAIC) framework of Six Sigma.

What began in that initial phase as training for eight has grown to include nearly 150 team leads, managers, engineers and hourly associates across the refinery. The newly embedded training is an essential part of a continuous-improvement cycle, where employees continually collect data, identify top problems, then solve any challenge that comes up.

“The difference between the initial training and this round is that, now, a rigorous scientific approach to problem-solving becomes part of the culture of the organization,” says Flynn. “So we don’t need one team to dedicate 10% of their time to solving problems. Solving problems becomes part of everyone’s day-to-day job.”

The proprietary technique taught by Hagen & Co., called Control Factor Analysis (CFA), allows people to find out which part of a process — or which control factor — is off kilter, before taking steps to solve the problem.

With so many employees trained in the discipline, the power to drive improvement on the front lines will be multiplied exponentially.

Explains Keighley, “We’re trying to drive capability at all levels, so a greater percentage of problems will be solved by hourly associates. When it becomes a greater part of a lead operator’s job to solve problems, those problems never have to involve management and engineers, which frees up managers and engineers to drive improvement in the business as a whole.”

For some associates, training consists of two-and-a-half days of training, followed by solving a production- or quality-oriented problem currently identified at the refinery. They have two weeks to solve the problem.

Yet other associates in the refinery and packaging areas will receive an eight-hour training session that focuses on the “define” and “measure” components of DMAIC. The goal is to make sure those on the front line, who often see a problem first, know to take 10 minutes to document the symptoms with notes or photographs, so the problem can be analyzed and permanently solved.

“It’s critical that all associates get to the root cause of the problem to make sure that same problem doesn’t occur two weeks later,” says Keighley. “That drives the reliability of the refinery. And it’s why we’re going through this training with every single operator in the plant.”

A daily 9 a.m. meeting allows the refinery team to review the list of top problems that need solving. The list, which stays posted in the refinery’s break room for all to see, includes action items, as well as who’s working on what, and what has been accomplished so far. Flynn expects that soon associates will take pride in seeing their accomplishments posted on the board.

“The bottom line is, to achieve continuous improvement, you have to solve problems faster than they occur,” Flynn says. “We’re adding more bandwidth to our ability to solve problems faster by involving all our people. And that’s how we’ll achieve continuous improvement.”

“Imperial has always been intimately tied to the local community,” says George Muller, vice president of administration for ISC. “That’s because we as a company see how mutually dependent we are and because of the great character of our employees.”

In addition to its Fair Trade practices that benefit farming communities around the world – and the production of eco-friendly, natural, organic products – ISC continues to support a number of community causes. Here are just a few.

Giving the Gift of Life

Frank Plut

ISC associates in Sugar Land, Texas, where the company’s headquarters is located, have been supporting the Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center for more than 20 years. ISC Senior Payroll Administrator Frank Plut has led the blood drive for the last five.

Five times a year, as many as 25 employees roll up their sleeves and donate blood to help meet the region’s daily need for 1,000 units.

“We used to conduct four blood drives a year,” says Plut. “But associates wanted to work another one in, so we did.”

The blood drive is conducted right on the headquarters campus, making it convenient for employees to give.

According to Plut, one donation can save three lives. “It’s a good feeling to be involved in this program. It tickles me to see so much interest from fellow associates.”

Community Healthcare for All

Imperial’s Rick Fitzjarrell, computer operations manager (L) and Mike Bentley, senior manager of infrastructure.

Like many charitable organizations, the San Jose Clinic in Houston, Texas, largely depends on volunteers to keep it running. Operated by the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, the clinic has been providing healthcare and health education to economically disadvantaged individuals and families in the Greater Houston area since 1922.

During a tour of the San Jose Clinic, ISC associates from Sugar Land took an interest in its work and offered to help in any way they could. That offer paid off for the clinic when it moved to a new location in town.

Help came in the way of technical expertise from Imperial’s Mike Bentley, senior manager of infrastructure and Rick Fitzjarrell, computer operations manager for the company. The pair got all of the clinic’s computer work stations up and running, networking more than two dozen desktops, several printers and servers. They also installed several wireless access points in the ceilings on two different floors – no small task.

“Mike and Rick’s help really made a difference,” said Joe de la Garza, information systems manager at San Jose Clinic. “They saved us a lot of time. They knocked out every single computer, printer and wireless access point in one day.”

“We were glad to help,” said Bentley. “It came naturally to us since we deal with this kind of thing in our Imperial Sugar work.” According to Bentley, this may be the first of more volunteer visits to come.

Fighting Disease

Imperial Sugar's "Relay for Life" volunteers at Gramercy, La.

In the neighboring state of Louisiana, ISC associates at the Gramercy sugar refinery give time to one of their favorite community programs: Relay for Life – a fund-raising effort for the American Cancer Society.

The fundraiser was co-chaired by Charmaine Ordeneaux, administrative assistant at the refinery and Human Resources Assistant Erin Hymel. According to Ordeneaux, each year, beginning in January, plant employees hold a series of preliminary fundraisers, including bake sales, a casino bus trip, raffles and more.

The program culminates with an overnight camping event in the spring where teams raise more money.

For example, team members walk laps to celebrate with those who survived cancer and honor those who have lost the battle.

A highlight of the evening is the Luminaria Ceremony, during which candles are lit inside bags filled with sand, each one bearing the name of a person touched by cancer. Ordeneaux says Sky Lanterns also are released into the air like miniature hot air balloons, “lifting up our prayers and taking away all of our worries and concerns.” The event runs 12 hours from 5 p.m. to 5 a.m.

Each participating organization was asked to pick a birthday party theme for its team and campsite.

The 18-member Gramercy team chose “Celebrating Life Under the Big Top.”

The team raised more than $9,000 and placed fourth out of 25 teams within St. James Parish, which surpassed its goal of raising more than $100,000 this year.

“It was a great year,” says Ordeneaux. “We had a lot of fun and raised money for an important cause in the process.”

Reaching out to Others

After the 2008 explosion at the ISC sugar refinery in Port Wentworth, Georgia, the Salvation Army helped feed employees at the plant’s deli for nine months, providing food for almost half of that period.

Salvation Army's Majors Mary Kay and Sam Hearne receive toys from Imperial's Pat House (right).

Employees returned the favor during the following Christmas season by manning the familiar Salvation Army bell ringing/fund raising stations in front of Wal-Mart and grocery stores.

Ginger Faulconer, the refinery’s human resource manager who coordinates fundraising efforts with the Salvation Army in Savannah, says dozens of employees put on their Imperial Sugar uniforms and filled multiple shifts over a period of several days.

“The Salvation Army and Imperial Sugar mutually benefited from each other’s support at different times,” says Faulconer. “It illustrates the truth that when you help the community, you help yourself. Business and community are integrally tied to one another.”

Imperial Sugar's Port Wentworth sugar refinery goes through a maintenance outage designed to improve equipment efficiency.

On a recent Friday evening, maintenance staff at Imperial Sugar Company’s Port Wentworth refinery began a shutdown process that took every piece of equipment from a steady productive purr to a standstill.

Packaging team member William McGee inspects new equipment.

The weekend hiatus was a planned maintenance outage designed to improve equipment efficiency between scheduled shutdowns, enabling the refinery to operate more consistently at higher rates.

During the rigorous monthly process that lasts two and a half days, preventive equipment care is completed, repairs are made and safety inspections are conducted. It’s an exercise that requires a keen eye for details as well as applying decades of maintenance experience.

“We are all working together to run the refinery at the highest rate possible every day,” explains Refinery Manager Jim Flynn.

“A better shutdown means we can smoothly get things back up and running on Monday, and have machinery that runs reliably until the next time we shut down. We have made steady progress in improving our daily production volume since restarting the plant one year ago following the rebuild of the facility to repair damage caused by the February 2008 tragedy. It is imperative that we return the operations to full capacity as fast as we can. Our maintenance team has made a significant contribution to our success in ramping up our rate.”

Refinery manager Jim Flynn.

As for the details, every shutdown involves roughly 300 distinct maintenance tasks — a lengthy list that requires flawless front-end coordination and seamless execution, in order to be completed within 60 hours.

The man overseeing those 300-some tasks is Port Wentworth’s Andre Jeffries, Imperial Sugar’s reliability engineering team lead, who brings years of experience to the job. He’s aided by an expert team from four areas of the refinery who help plan and schedule a myriad of tasks, itemized on a vast Gantt chart or complex project schedule.

Over the past several months, the planning team has transformed the way the refinery executes a routine shutdown. Previously, Jeffries says, shutdowns were more frequent, though less efficient. “The maintenance team had a list of tasks to do, but they were less efficient in their approach, and therefore we had more waste,” he explains.

Andre Jeffries, Imperial Sugar’s reliability engineering team lead.

Since then, the planning team has collaborated with consultants from Fluor and Marshall Institute to hone their skills in process planning and scheduling. Together they have put a new planning processes in place.

“Better upfront planning makes the process more efficient, so that we’re prepared with everything we need, everyone knows exactly what they’re doing, and we can accomplish more jobs,” said Corky Hebert, refinery maintenance planner.

“The last shutdown was probably the most successful one we’ve ever had,” counted Jeffries.

He credits a number of factors for the success, including efficient labor utilization, healthy engagement between maintenance and other employees, and a strong spirit of initiative.

He explains that not only did the team accomplish numerous pre-planned tasks, but “the maintenance team identified many things that were going to cause imminent breakdowns and completed those repairs as well.”

Flynn added that hurdles are overcome during the two days by pre-scheduled huddles, in which the production, maintenance and planning teams discuss barriers.

“The idea is that if we have the right people in the room, we can figure out ways to work around any obstacles. We also have a post-mortem meeting, to talk about what worked well and what we want to repeat, and lessons learned that we want to improve on. It’s a continuous-improvement process.”

Kevin Jeffries, manager of corporate safety systems at Imperial Sugar, checks the powdered sugar facility.

]]> http://www.iscnewsroom.com/2010/09/06/maintenance-planning-leads-to-improved-efficiency/feed/ 0 http://www.iscnewsroom.com/2010/08/29/imperial-sugar-in-collaborative-global-partnerships/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=imperial-sugar-in-collaborative-global-partnerships http://www.iscnewsroom.com/2010/08/29/imperial-sugar-in-collaborative-global-partnerships/#comments Sun, 29 Aug 2010 23:00:24 +0000 iscnewsroom http://www.iscnewsroom.com/?p=9122

Ed Makin (L), President and CEO of Lantic Sugar, is taken on a tour of Imperial Sugar's state-of-the-art sugar packaging facility at Port Wentworth, Ga., by John Sheptor, President and CEO of Imperial Sugar.

Imperial Sugar Company is continuing to expand its global network of collaboration with technical exchanges on-going with Lantic Inc. in Canada, British Sugar in the United Kingdom, and Pfeifer & Langen in Germany.   These relationships have developed as regional sugar companies have found value in sharing knowledge with a producer in another world region.  Imperial Sugar Company initiated conversations with each based upon an interest to share best practices for sugar dust risk mitigation. From this beginning, broad technical discussions have ensued leading to substantive conversations.

“I am pleased with the open dialogues that have been developed between our companies.  Imperial is an active participant in the global industry through raw sugar and organic sweetener procurement.  The addition of refining and product development collaboration broadens our global reach and strengthens our technical base,” says John Sheptor, President and CEO of Imperial Sugar Company.

“We have invited the global industry to share best practices regarding combustible dust and these new relationships have been built upon a common commitment to worker safety.  I look forward to other global leaders to step forward to share what they have learned and know.”

To ensure that it is operating at the cutting edge, ISC plans to continue to exchange technical data and processes with each company. Reciprocal expert visits have been initiated and much has already been learned.

“These technical exchanges bring strength to our company, because we’re able to benchmark against other industry leaders,” says Thomas Rathke, senior director engineering and business development. “We can benchmark each other’s plants, looking at safety programs, energy usage, water consumption, control systems, maintenance approaches and so on.”

Thomas Rathke, senior director engineering and business development, Imperial Sugar Company.

ISC reached out to these three partners for a reason: Lantic Inc. is a market leader in Canada; Pfeifer is a highly prominent player in the Central and Eastern European markets; while British Sugar is a top supplier to the U.K., with large holdings in Africa and Asia.

The exchange begins with a visit by leadership to the international site, and soon after, a technical team follows to delve into the details. In those follow-up visits, for example, an engineering expert from ISC talks directly to his counterpart at Lantic, British Sugar and Pfeifer & Langen.

“The working-level discussions between experts — that’s the starting gun, where you really get things done,” Rathke says.

After benchmarking comes a gap analysis, in which both companies examine how well they perform versus the experience of the other.  With this scorecard in hand, the technical experts are in a position to focus on areas of most relevance to each company.

Pfeifer & Langen sugar facility in Euskirchen, Germany.

“We’ll ask ourselves whether we might change something in our own system to reach that better performance,” Rathke says. “In any given workplace, it is often difficult to let go of traditional appoaches. By going through this process, you can refocus, look at something a new way, and learn from one another.”

On the core technical team from ISC are Rathke, Robert Burch from the process engineering team, and Darrell Gerdes from the product development team.

In Rathke’s mind, it all boils down to this question: Why reinvent the wheel?

“When you have strong global partners, you shouldn’t have to reinvent,” he says. Instead, by sharing lessons about operational excellence, you can ultimately jointly gain improved workplace safety, efficiency and cost improvement.

Texas businesswoman Trish Winebrenner has focused her career on effectively streamlining the sales and marketing processes.

Texas businesswoman Trish Winebrenner has focused her career on effectively streamlining sales and marketing processes of a spectrum of Fortune 500 companies, most recently Continental Airlines. Now, she is bringing her operational expertise to the sales area of Imperial Sugar Company.

Winebrenner and Imperial share the same strategic goal: To favorably impact the all-important bottom line in a highly competitive business environment while exceeding customer expectations.

Imperial Sugar Company has contracted with Winebrenner to review and diagram operational processes within the sales area and then to develop improvement opportunities with the sales team.

For decades, the sugar industry’s business model was fairly simple – make and sell sugar. Not so, anymore.

Today, it is far more complex for sugar manufacturers because of changes to government import legislation, wide price variability on raw sugar futures and emerging governmental requirements regarding food safety.

Profit margins today are influenced by far-reaching and global competitive forces, mandating greater efficiencies for a sugar company, from manufacturing through marketing.

Coming to Imperial Sugar with a fresh perspective, it will be Winebrenner’s job to map all current sales, pricing and marketing processes within the Imperial sales network in an effort to highlight decision influencers, ensure actions are results driven versus activity focused and point out divergences in protocol or process that may be impacting the bottom line and the quality of customer service.

Winebrenner has recently initiated this project that delves into all segments of the key business processes used by Imperial’s sales team. Her responsibility is to drill down on essential and competitive areas, including sales forecasting, pricing, trade discounting and allowances, production allocation between plants, product allocation, marketing budgeting and order versus contract-agreed price matching.

What she is doing to streamline Imperial Sugar’s sales operation is similar in scope to strategic initiatives the company has taken in the sugar refining and packaging areas – to bring together expertise and enhanced operational disciplines that will make Imperial the most profitable sugar manufacturer in America.

Winebrenner was a senior executive at Continental Airlines and ExpressJet, and now provides sales and marketing consulting to Texas based companies. She is based in Houston.

In response, the company hosted a local blood drive.

According to Tracy Dicharry, senior human resource administrator at the Gramercy plant who coordinated the drive, 41 pints of blood were collected from as many contractors and Imperial associates.

“Given the hot weather, I was impressed with the turnout,” says Dicharry. “That speaks to the close-knit bonds shared among our people.”

Dicharry says that anyone who was unable to participate in the blood drive may still donate in Mr. Tolito’s name at any local blood center in LaPlace, La.

Well-tuned engineering skills certainly have their place on the job – as well as in the heat of competitive racing.

Just ask master technician Kevin Todd and house engineers Wade Lambert and Onell Lousteau, all of whom work at Imperial Sugar Company’s refinery in Gramercy, La.

As house engineers, Lambert and Lousteau make sure the plant systems – including air, water and conveyors – are all running properly. As a master technician, Todd fixes anything that breaks, using such skills as welding, steel fabrication, and various mechanical and millwright work.

When they’re not on the job, this trio spends as much time as they can on their favorite hobby – racing radio-controlled model boats in international competition.

In their off-time, you can find them customizing and racing model boats – boats that reach speeds of 70 miles per hour and more.

The three are members of the North American Model Boat Association (NAMBA), as well as members of the largest club in NAMBA’s District 5 – called Voodoo Model Boaters.

Operating radio-controlled vehicles has been a hobby of Todd’s for many years. He says he started focusing on boats 10 years ago because with airplanes, for example, “once you crash them, you pretty much go get a garbage bag.” He also finds them more interesting because hydrodynamics are involved, as well as aerodynamics.

Todd, Loustea and Lambert recently competed in the NAMBA nationals, which were held at the St. John’s Parish retention pond in Reserve, La. Competitors came from as far away as Australia.
Todd says the pond provides a perfect place for a race because there are no residents or businesses nearby and the noise from the boats gets quite loud.

The race course is a 330-feet-long, 50-foot-wide oval – with up to six boats competing in each six-lap heat. Each event is conducted over a period of five days. First place goes to the best cumulative time.

The model boats range from 40 to 56 inches long and run a 7.5-horsepower gasoline engine, which amounts to a “highly modified weed-eater motor,” Todd says. Boats that use nitro fuel have clocked speeds as fast as 89 miles per hour. Two minutes is the best time for six laps.

Todd and his colleagues spend a lot of time coordinating and setting up local races, sometimes working as pit bosses and making sure things go smoothly and safely. “The props are razor sharp,” says Todd. “And some of these boats weigh as much as 25 pounds – and, at 65 mph, 25 pounds would hurt.”

Todd and Lambert also own and operate a business called Byyouboyz RC Boats, where they build and customize model boats to help support their racing passion.

Gramercy associates that are members of the Voo Doo Model Boat Club are (l-r); Onell Lousteau, house engineer Kevin Todd, master technician and Wade Lambert, assistant house engineer.

Racers might spend anywhere from $1,500 to $4,000 on a boat, but Todd says money won’t win a race. “It’s about knowing the boat, setting it up well and being a consistent driver.”

While Todd hasn’t won a trophy yet, three fellow members of the Voodoo club became national champions at nationals in June.

The Voodoo RC Boat Club will be sponsoring the next NAMBA nationals event in November – also in Reserve. It’s called “The Voodoo’s World Fastest Gas Boat Shootout” and includes entrants from such countries as Germany, Australia and Kuwait.

Antron Brown, a top drag racer who can be seen on ESPN, also competes as a member of the Voodoo club.

“It’s a really fine sport. A lot of fun and very competitive,” says Todd. “The good thing is that at the end of the day, everybody’s still friends.”

]]> http://www.iscnewsroom.com/2010/08/19/honing-their-craft-on-and-off-the-job/feed/ 0 http://www.iscnewsroom.com/2010/08/18/imperial-sugar%e2%80%99s-online-coupons-gain-popularity/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=imperial-sugar%25e2%2580%2599s-online-coupons-gain-popularity http://www.iscnewsroom.com/2010/08/18/imperial-sugar%e2%80%99s-online-coupons-gain-popularity/#comments Wed, 18 Aug 2010 05:01:00 +0000 iscnewsroom http://www.iscnewsroom.com/?p=8920

Quynh-Luu Ha, Imperial’s business development administrator.

Imperial Sugar Company (ISC) has typically distributed coupons in newspapers or shopping fliers to reach customers. Today, these free-standing inserts (FSIs) are complemented by the company’s increasingly popular e-coupons – and consumers are the better for it.

On-line coupons are another smart way to reach shoppers. “It’s about being in front of consumers digitally,” says Hyuna Lee, senior marketing manager for ISC. “Consumers who visit our website are loyal customers, and we want to ensure we provide all options for them to use and save on our products.”

Consumers have many options when they shop and if we can provide incentive to pick up a specific brand, it’s a win-win proposition for both the consumer and a company

Last November, ISC launched its e-coupon pilot program. Within 24 days, 20,000 coupons were downloaded by customers – mostly for granulated sugar. “It was very successful,” says Quynh-Luu Ha, Imperial’s business development administrator.

Over the last nine months, buyers of Imperial Sugar and Dixie Crystals products have downloaded more than 100,000 e-coupons from several websites: smartsource.com and coupons.com, as well as from imperialsugar.com and dixiecrystals.com.

E-coupons are in addition to the traditional free-standing inserts, which continue to play a big part in promoting ISC’s products – as seen by the FSIs used in its successful “Grandma” marketing campaign.

Lee is quick to point out that online and FSIs are part of a broader strategy that also includes display coupons and promotional coupons, such as those used for events like Lemonade Day.

Still, there’s no denying e-coupons are gaining ground fast with customers – and Imperial Sugar intends to capitalize on this bargain-shopping trend.
“The number-one reason that consumers visit manufacturers’ websites is for coupons,” says Lee. “It was a missed opportunity for us. Coupons have proven to be a key driver for visits to our sites.”

With the success of its pilot, the company has followed up with e-coupons for its Redi-Measure™ brown sugar pouches and Baker’s Supreme™ Premium Frosting Mixes.

Today, ISC continues to boost its on-line coupon numbers, with tens of thousands being offered at various times for Imperial Sugar and Dixie Crystals products.

Downloaded online or delivered through more traditional means, Ha says consumers get the same great products either way – along with this frugal and thoughtful idea: “We want customers to realize we also are trying to help them save in this economy.”