Topeka Business Hall of Fame | Jeff Russell
Photos by JEFF CARSON & JENNIFER GOETZ
Most of us are familiar with the popular television show “Cheers,” which is famous for being the place “where everybody knows your name.”
For Jeff Russell, the place where everybody knows his name is Hanover Pancake House in Topeka. He’s spent decades meeting colleagues there for breakfast. Both the regulars and the servers call him by name and stop to joke with him as they pass by. With a friendly wave and a quick smile, Jeff is right at home in the bustling restaurant.
But Hanover Pancake House isn’t the only place where Jeff’s name is well known. The city of Topeka has recognized the local business icon as a 2024 Junior Achievement Topeka Business of Fame laureate.
Jeff’s contribution to Topeka’s food production and packaging industry began long ago at a small tortilla factory. Since then, he has scaled operations to include the four plants that comprise the Topeka campus of Reser’s Fine Foods.
Jeff helped Reser’s understand how to do business in Topeka — and helped Topeka understand how to do business with Reser’s.
BUSINESS IN THE BLOOD
Jeff hasn’t always called Topeka home. He spent the first 12 years of his life in Phoenix, where his dad was a successful salesperson in the meat business.
From there, his father’s career moved them to Amarillo, Texas for a couple of years and then on to Great Bend, Kansas, where he took a sales manager position with the Thies Meatpacking Company. Two years later, when Jeff was a junior in high school, the Thies family moved his father to Topeka to be their eyes and ears at the Ohse Meat Company facility.
“Because he was such a great salesman, my dad kept that Ohse plant at full production capacity with time left to spare,” Jeff said. “Since they couldn’t produce any more, Dad found himself coasting a little bit, something the salesman in him found hard to do.”
That thirst for more had Jeff ’s father walking into a small Mexican food factory down the street from the Ohse plant to ask the owners if they needed help marketing their products. They told him, “No thank you,” and said they were doing fine. Six months later, they called him back and asked if he wanted to buy the La Siesta Foods factory.
That was in 1978, Jeff ’s junior year in college.
“Dad didn’t need to buy that factory,” Jeff said. “He had a great corporate job with a secure income. He was set. But he chose to gamble everything on that little factory.”
A WORTHWHILE GAMBLE
Jeff ’s father bought the 3500-square-foot company when it had fewer than 20 employees. Soon, he was marketing to Dillons, Associated Grocers and other major warehouses.
It wasn’t long before he’d grown the company to a point where he needed more help. In 1982, he asked Jeff to join the business.
“After graduating from KU in 1979, I was working in a corporate sales job selling bearings, gears and sprockets,” Jeff said. “But when dad asked for my help, I didn’t have to think twice about it.”
Jeff became La Siesta Foods’ 19th employee. He was responsible for running production, overseeing 17 employees and operating the machines. That meant he did everything from grinding and cooking corn to running the tortilla-making machines.
“Pretty soon after I started, we decided to expand into making flour tortillas,” Jeff said. “The only problem was, I didn’t know anything about making flour tortillas.”
But he would learn. They put him on a plane to California where he spent the next two weeks learning everything he could about flour tortilla production: mixing dough, running specialized machines and packaging the final products. Joined by two machine operators, Jeff returned to Topeka with the knowledge he needed to oversee production at the 25,000-square-foot facility expansion.
As the business grew, so did its need for managers. Jeff ’s oldest brother, a CPA, joined the company in 1984 to handle the financial aspects of the business.
THE POWER OF CONNECTION
While attending a food show in 1986, Jeff ’s father met Al Reser. The two had an instant connection.
As owners of family businesses, they looked for ways to work together. Reser had a thriving potato salad business in Oregon but wanted to expand to the east, so he made an arrangement with La Siesta Foods to buy their tortillas. He would haul a truckload of potato salad to Kansas before hauling tortillas back to Oregon.
“That relationship with the Reser family resulted in them buying half of our company in 1986,” Jeff said. “I would say that was the beginning of Reser’s coming to Topeka. Al knew he wanted to open a factory in the Midwest and the partnership with our family made Topeka the most viable option.”
That was an incredible year for the Russell family. They expanded operations to include a burrito plant. Meanwhile, Jeff ’s older brother joined the company to help with sales.
Things were looking bright for the family business until tragedy struck one year later. Jeff ’s father was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer and passed away in 1988.
The three brothers — along with their mother, Peggy — took up their father’s mantle and forged ahead. They put Jeff in charge of expanding their tortilla and burrito operations. He purchased equipment, set up management and production systems and served as the first plant manager at each location. Once a plant was up and running, they would hire a full-time manager so that Jeff could establish the next facility.
“I would build the plant and make sure it operated smoothly,” Jeff said. “My middle brother would sell it, and my oldest brother would make sure everyone was paid. We made a pretty good team. It was as dynamic a team as anyone could hope for.”
That dynamic team grew La Siesta Food into a company with more than 375 employees and $25 million in sales. However, when Reser’s made an offer to buy the other half of the family business in 1996, the three brothers agreed that taking the deal made the most financial sense.
“We found ourselves struggling with the decision to sell a business that our dad pretty much started from scratch,” Jeff said. “But our mom told us to take the emotion out of the decision and base it on sound business principles, so we did.”
After the sale, Jeff ’s brothers left the company to forge new paths, but Jeff remained with Reser’s to continue running operations.
SAME BUSINESS, NEW ROLES
When Reser’s asked Jeff to manage their entire frozen Mexican food category in 2003, he took over a factory in Salt Lake City that produced tortillas and frozen burritos. He used his food production expertise to make impressive reductions in costs. However, Reser’s decided that they no longer wanted to keep frozen Mexican foods as a core business. They sold the Salt Lake City facility and turned their focus back to potatoes, potato salad and macaroni.
Reser’s asked Jeff to manage the Deer Creek Potato Facility in Topeka. At the time, the facility was having some issues with production and quality. While he didn’t know much about potatoes, Jeff didn’t hesitate to take on this new responsibility.
“I know people. I know process. I know structure,” Jeff said. “And I know right from wrong. That is pretty much all it takes.”
Jeff solved the facility’s production and quality control problems, and moved operations back on track. His success led him to take on even more responsibility. In 2016, Reser’s made Jeff the VP of Operations for their hot fill products.
He was now overseeing the Deer Creek plant and a second plant in Washington. Splitting time between Topeka and Washington meant that Jeff was always traveling by plane, train or automobile. He kept that busy schedule until his retirement in 2021.
STILL A FAMILY BUSINESS
Jeff credits his success at Reser’s to his experience working in a family business.
“It is like wearing the same kind of shoes, just in a different size,” Jeff said.
But it was the relationships he built along the way that helped Jeff make his mark within the Reser company.
“I understood the Reser family, and they trusted me to make decisions that I would have made for my own business,” Jeff said. “That was a great formula for success.”
Because of his history with the business and his relationship with the Reser family, Russell could operate under a set of rules that didn’t always apply to the other employees.
“I didn’t fit into one neat little box. Sometimes I was a sales guy. Sometimes I was an operations guy. Sometimes I would be in someone else’s business, looking at ways to make improvements,” Jeff said. “But no matter what I was doing, Reser’s trusted me like their own family.”
STANDARDS TO WORK BY
Jeff learned how to be a good leader from watching his father. Not only was his father a good salesperson, but he also understood how to motivate people. Most importantly, he was big enough to admit when he was wrong.
“I remember one time being so mad at my dad that I threw my keys down and threatened to quit,” Russell said. “Rather than argue with me, he brought in a counselor to help us work through our issues so that we both felt heard and understood. We came out of that session better business partners and best of friends.”
Jeff also learned the value of doing the right thing, even when the right thing is expensive or difficult to do. He’s held himself to that standard many times.
“Just because something is good enough, doesn’t make it right,” Russell said.
AN EYE ON THE FUTURE
When Jeff retired in 2021, he knew that the more laidback life of a retiree would take some getting used to.
“The most critical moment when you retire is the first 90 days,” Jeff said. “You must have a transition plan.”
Jeff ’s transition plan was to build his wife, Karen, an art studio in their basement. She now has a place to make jewelry and other artsy gifts for friends and family. While Karen is working in her art room, Russell is focusing on his health. He spends his time exercising, meditating and finding things to do outdoors.
He also continues to work. He started Jeff Russell Consulting to share his expertise with other businesses.
“I really didn’t want to work that hard, but I couldn’t quit altogether. I helped a small business in the Northwest that recently sold. I went back and forth and helped them grow their production, organize their processes, do what I do and then help the owners see through to a sale.”
Jeff also finds time for family. Before their mother passed away, the Russell brothers promised her that they would keep the family connection strong.
In the winter, Jeff spends two to three weeks playing golf with his brother in Phoenix. He spends February skiing with his son. In the summer, the brothers meet in Northern Arizona for a week to play golf.
NO PLACE LIKE HOME
Managing plants all over the country meant that Jeff could have moved anywhere. Reser’s wanted him to move to Salt Lake City when he took over that facility. They also wanted him to move to Beaverton, Oregon, when he took the corporate job, but didn’t bother to ask because they knew he would refuse.
“I grew up moving around and I promised my son when we sold the business that I would not do that to him,” Jeff said. “I wanted to raise my son in a place where he had a great foundation with lifelong friends. I wanted to raise him in Topeka.”
Jeff says that decision was the best one he ever made. The Topeka community embraced him and he embraced them back. Jeff is humbled by the community’s recognition of him as one of the 2024 Junior Achievement Topeka Business Hall of Fame Laureates.
“I never thought this would happen to me,” Jeff said. “To get this kind of recognition citywide is beyond my imagination. I still don’t know why they chose to give me this honor.”
The selection committee knows why they chose Jeff for this honor. He understood the benefits of Reser’s and the city of Topeka working together. Early on, Jeff worked to show Reser’s how business-friendly Topeka could be compared to other cities. He also showed the city how to work with a family business the size of Reser’s and incentivize economic growth.
Jeff ’s efforts to expand the Reser’s facilities put Topeka on a path to become a manufacturing hotspot of the Midwest.
