Manufacturers: Reser's Fine Foods

Photos by Sammie Robinson

The four plants that comprise the Reser’s Fine Foods Topeka campus produce about 2.2 million pounds of food every day, filling up to 70 truckloads of side dishes and hot entrees destined for kitchen, restaurant and picnic tables across North America. In addition to making meal products for its own label, Reser’s Fine Foods also supplies restaurants and the country’s largest grocery retailers with custom private label products.

Reser’s Fine Foods, a privately owned company based in Beaverton, Oregon, built a new salad plant in Topeka during Phase One of its overall $86.5 million capital expansion announced in 2016. The Joint Economic Development Organization (JEDO) provided the company with $665,000 in incentives—$329,000 for capital investment and $336,000 for job creation. During the three-year expansion period, Jeff Russell, vice president of operations, said Reser’s Fine Foods exceeded its initial financial investment estimates and grew headcount by 13 percent.

Open since March 2018, the Crossroads salad plant, relocated from its 10th Street location to 6th Street and Croco Road, has gone from a daily production capacity of 700,000 pounds of salad to more than a million pounds. In addition to picnic and tailgate staples, the Crossroads plant makes Stonemill Kitchens specialty dips.

The original salad plant opened in 1991 and despite four additions, the company was becoming unable to keep up with consumer demand. In addition to enhanced capacity, the new plant offers greater customization options and high-tech sanitation capabilities too, Russell said.

“We don’t just make one kind of potato salad or one kind of slaw here,” he said. “We have about 100 recipes for potato salad alone—skin on, skin off, small diced, large diced, mayonnaise-based, mustard-based and more.”

In October 2018, the company launched Phase Two, a $19.5 million investment to convert the former salad plant into a state-of-the-art hot-food enterprise, Main St Bistro. e company completely remodeled the site and installed new plumbing, walls, floors, ceilings and equipment, including three high-powered cooking ovens. Food cooks quickly, and a plastic film is applied immediately to seal the trays so they are completely contained while they cool.

Main St Bistro makes scalloped potatoes and roasted tri-color potatoes, while a hot-fill plant makes family favorites like macaroni and cheese and mashed potatoes. A fourth plant uses fresh tortillas and fillings to hand-roll Baja Café burritos.

Russell said consumers seeking convenience and quality products fuel plant growth. About 40 percent of the company’s food products are made at the Topeka campus.

“It plays to our strong suit,” he said. “Consumers can peel the film off a hot dish and put it in a microwave and have it ready to eat in five minutes or pop the lid off a ready- made salad.”

Russell said a tight labor market makes the company’s extensive offerings appealing too.

“We find our restaurant customers love our products not only because it allows them flexibility in labor allocation, but also because of our extremely high quality and consistency,” he said. “Consumers, commercial and individual, tell us they won’t make scalloped potatoes anymore a after eating ours. We use the same stuff you’d use if you were making them at home—real milk, real potatoes, real cheese—but we’re making them 400 gallons at a time.”

Russell started at the plant in 1996. Reser’s Fine Foods bought half of La Siesta, his family’s business, in 1986 and the rest in 1996.

“Al Reser, our founder, was a native Kansan,” said Russell. “In the early days, he would haul potato salad here and Mexican food back to Oregon. He created the market for us in Kansas City, which is still one of the company’s strongest regions.”

Reser’s Fine Foods

The plant’s geographic location in Topeka is beneficial for distribution, but Russell credits readily available and affordable natural gas, electricity and water as additional critical assets for manufacturing.

“That’s not always the case in other parts of the country where plant consumption is sometimes restricted, so we need to maintain that competitive advantage in Topeka,” he said.

Russell cites access to highly skilled local contractors as yet another contributing factor to his company’s expansion success.

“We used as many local businesses as possible,” he said, including HME, P1 Electric, D.L. Smith Electric, McElroy’s and Kolmer Concrete Flatwork.

The Topeka campus supports community causes, literally providing tons of food each year to Harvesters to distribute to area individuals and families.

The Reser’s team also has an affinity for its East Topeka location and the Mexican Fiesta put on by the Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church.

“We give the Fiesta materials to help them prepare the food and share safety measures and prep methods, but the church ladies make all that good stuff,” he said. “We just assist in helping them be more efficient in the kitchen because cooking in large quantities is what we do.”

Each year the local plant management team receives a sum of money to distribute to local charities. Hourly employees selected for the Reser’s Cares committee review submission requests and determine distribution.

“There are no pet projects,” said Russell. “If a group is having a fundraiser and needs potato salad or a ball team needs T-shirts or a nonprofit needs money for a program or service, the committee’s responsible for making the recommendations.”

Having grown up in a family business, Russell respects and appreciates his employer’s commitment to its employees. He was the Topeka plant’s 19th employee and has watched it grow to 1,150 employees.

Russell said the pervasive “family vibe” for a $1.3 billion company whose salads were once sold door to door is reinforced when CEO Mark Reser visits the plant.

“He knows people, products and processes, and walks the floor talking to everyone,” said Russell. “It makes a difference for our employees to know they work in a caring atmosphere. I can’t imagine working anywhere else.”