Akron's Hickory Harvest Foods has expanded its operations in the city's industrial park just south of town in Coventry Township.
The company, which makes a broad line of nuts and other snack foods, says it has added 17,000 square feet to its manufacturing facility, and it soon will add 10 employees to use it to increase production.
The company currently employs about 75 people at its existing 50,000-square-foot warehouse and production facility in Coventry. It has been exploring an expansion for at least a year. Vice president of sales Mike Swiatkowski, whose grandfather started Hickory in 1972, said the company is constantly looking for new products to meet consumer demand for snacks, often with a healthier nutritional profile than things like potato chips or candy.
The new production facility will serve up both the healthy and the sweet; it's largely being devoted to coating pretzels, dried fruits and other snacks with chocolate. The company previously leased space in Columbus for those operations, but it's now moving them here, said Hickory spokeswoman Valerie Wolford.
The company has grown steadily since it purchased its present location on 6 acres from the city in 2009, when it had about 40 employees. Sales have been growing at about 10% to 15% per year, and the company has annual revenues of more than $20 million, according to Swiatkowski.
The company makes snacks that are sold under both its own name and as private-label brands at grocery and convenience stores nationwide. In recent years, it has benefited as those stores have increased the number of products they carry with nuts, fruits, trail mixes and other items made by Hickory.
"Products that are in demand in the food industry are healthy snacks with limited preservatives, clean ingredients and sweet indulgences," Swiatkowski said in announcing the recent expansion.
He said the move will allow the company to continue to expand its product lines, especially as it seeks more private label accounts.
- Dan Shingler, Crain's Cleveland