from left: ron jones, president · from left: ron jones, president and coo; barry levin, chairman...

From left: Ron Jones, presidentand COO; Barry Levin, chairmanand CEO; and Joe Papiri, vice president of sales and marketing, provide the entrepreneurial spirit behindSnak King’s success.

As soon as Ron Jones heard thecrash, the new chief operatingofficer of Snak King ran out ofhis office in the City of

Industry, Calif., factory to see what hadhappened.

“Initially, somebody thought there wasan explosion in the plant,” he recalls.

Instead, a 12,000-sq-ft. chunk of theroof had collapsed, apparently weakened bythe torrential autumn rains that had pum-meled normally sunny Southern Californiafor several weeks in October 2004.

Although no one was injured, the col-lapse could not have happened in a worseplace — directly over three tortilla chiplines, a baking oven and a microwavedryer in the heart of the plant. One of thefacility’s air-pollution devices wassmashed into a fryer. And to make mat-

ters worse, two high-pressure, fire sup-pression water lines had burst. Althoughthe water was turned off within 15 to 20minutes, the plant was already flooded.

Talk about a royal mess.“There was oil everywhere, because the

water had actually gone down into thefryer and pushed out oil all over the floor,so it was slippery,” says Jones, who hadjoined the company just 10 months earlier.

Barry Levin, Snak King’s chairman andCEO, was on his way to a trade show inLas Vegas when the accident occurred. Hehigh-tailed it back to Los Angeles after thenormally unflappable Jones called to tellhim what had happened.

“Ron’s pretty calm and easy-going, and[by the tone of his voice] I thought, itmust be a big roof collapse,” Levinexplains. “It was significantly worse thanI ever envisioned.”

The disaster shut down the entireContinued on page 4

MARCH 2006 - Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery 3

Rebuilding the

2 0 0 6 S N A C K M A N U F A C T U R E R O F T H E Y E A R

Throughout history, times of turmoil have defined the character of born leaders. When disaster struck Snak King in 2004, the company’s entrepreneurial spirit provided the backbone of survival … and the motivation to reconstruct its kingdom.

In October 2004, a 12,000-sq.-ft. chunk of Snak King’s West Coast factory collapsed.

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worked 24 hours a day, seven days aweek, and we had the plant back in oper-ation within about three weeks.”

Return of the KingToday, the entrepreneurial spirit is aliveand well at Snak King. Production, albeitjerry-rigged into tight spaces, is runningfull tilt as the company remodels andreorganizes its 177,000-sq.-ft. plant. Tosay that the business is in a state of transi-tion would be a major understatement,but change is something Snak King hasgrown accustomed to over the years.

“Some organizations are afraid tochange,” Levin says. “We’ve grown upwith having to change, having to adapt,having to figure out how to do things thatwe shouldn’t be able to do.”

True entrepreneurs like Levin “don’tsee the possibility for failure all the time

as much as they see the possibility for suc-cess,” Jones says. “That mentality, thatculture, permeates Snak King.”

However, maintaining a sense of nor-malcy, especially with customers and con-sumers, hasn’t been easy.

As Snak King goes through its periodof reconstruction, the company’s threebrands — El Sabroso, Jensen’s Orchardand Granny Goose — continue to offerconsumers throughout the West Coast,and even on a national level, a variety ofsnack food products, including tortillachips, popcorn, caramel corn, cheesecurls, cheese puffs, pork rinds, porkcracklins and nuts. (See “An InnovativeEmpire,” for details.) Snak King

Loyal SubjectsWhen it comes to producing standout products, “we’relooking for that cult following,” says Barry Levin, SnakKing’s chairman and CEO.

Case in point: On a recent flight to Oakland, Calif., Levinwas talking to someone on the phone about Guacachipswhen a college student sitting nearby overheard him andyelled, “Guacachips are rad!”

It’s consumers such as this that Snak King craves.“It might be a smaller population group that really

adamantly loves our products,” says Ron Jones, the com-pany’s president and COO, “but that fits us better thanhaving something that’s a generic product that everyoneis okay with, but that no one truly loves.”


4 Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery - MARCH 2006

plant. Levin knew the implications wouldbe quick and severe.

“Our entire life was on the line, 100percent,” he says. “We had a tremendousamount of pressure, because it’s a foodproduct, and every day you’re not on theshelf, your competitors are gladly takingyour place. Time was precious.”

Within hours, Snak King began remov-ing debris.

“The whole team jumped in,” Jonessays. “We had managers and employeesand firemen all working together.”

To add further disruption, the plant’ssecond air-pollution device on the remain-ing roof of the plant caught on fire justdays later. Snak King employees locatedthe first device — buried in the rubble ofthe collapse — cleaned it, and relocated itto the roof in just 12 hours’ time.

“Our guys were amazing,” Levin says.In less than a week, the company got

its pork rind line fired up. Although thedepartment had been only minimallyaffected, the company needed the U.S.Department of Agriculture to make surethe product would not get contaminated.By the end of that same week, the man-agement team had put together a plan ofattack for the rest of the facility’s func-tions. Basically, there were two options.One was to take the insurance money andwalk away. For Levin, leaving 300 peopleunemployed and throwing away nearly aquarter century of work was never a con-sideration.

The only viable choice was to rebuild.“From day one, we knew we were

going to get back up and running as soonas possible,” Jones says. “Our survivalwas at stake, and we knew that. We

also maintains a private label/co-packingbusiness.

Immediately following the disaster,times were trying, at best. In addition tofocusing on the cleanup of the plant, forexample, Snak King made sure to con-stantly communicate what was happeningto its clients.

“Our customers were trusting andunderstanding at the same time,” Levinsays. “We committed to be running on acertain day, and we were.”

Snak King also experienced an under-standing, and generous, snack food indus-try. The manufacturer received numerousphone calls from colleagues offeringadvice, capacity, co-packing capability,spare equipment and additional assis-tance. At Levin’s request, one suppliereven air-freighted seven packaging linesfrom overseas.

“It was a very positive experience,”Jones says.

It was surprising how the industrycame together to support us, Levin adds.

From Rinds to RoyaltyIt’s not as surprising that the industrycame to Snak King’s aid during a time ofcrisis when you consider the goodwill andgood reputation the company had built upover the years. Its management team, forinstance, has been actively involved in theSnack Food Association, with Levin serv-ing as chairman of the group in 2001.And Snak King has long been known as asnack food innovator.

The company got its start back in1978 at the hands of three investorgroups — a pork rind/pellet manufacturer,a distributor and a manufacturing facility.At the time, one of the investors, MikeLevin, suggested that his son, then recentcollege graduate, Barry Levin, run SnakKing’s pork rind plant.

“Frankly, I didn’t even know what a

pork rind was,” Barry Levin says. “I hadnever eaten one in my life.”

But Levin learned the business quickly.“I was the machine operator, the fork liftdriver, the truck driver, the bookkeeper,”he says.

After about a year, “I wasn’t sure Iwanted to make pork rinds for the rest ofmy life,” Levin continues. But instead ofgoing to graduate school, he decided topurchase one-third of the company … andthe balance of it, shortly thereafter.

In 1982, Snak King left its originalContinued on page 6

MARCH 2006 - Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery 5


At a GlanceCompany: Snak King Corp.Location: City of Industry, Calif.Products: Tortilla chips, extruded snacks, cornsnacks, popcorn, caramel corn, nuts and porkrinds. Producer of conventional, Kosher andorganic products.Brands: El Sabroso, Granny Goose, Jensen’sOrchard, private label.Employees: 270Plant: 177,000 sq. ft. Kosher certified, Organiccertified and USDA inspected.

Key PersonnelChairman & CEO: Barry LevinPresident & COO: Ron JonesV.P. Sales & Marketing: Joe Papiri

Snak King got its start producing porkrinds, a product the West Coast-based

manufacturer continues to offer consumers through its Mexican-

inspired El Sabroso brand.

1,200-sq.-ft. facility for a 50,000-sq.-ft.space, where it initially occupied 20,000sq. ft. At first, the main focus was privatelabel/co-packing, but within a few years,Snak King had decided to come out witha brand — El Sabroso (“The Tasty One”).The name was submitted by an employeeduring a company-wide contest.

El Sabroso became the first of threebrands to eventually fall under the SnakKing umbrella. Although pork rindsremain an integral part of its business, thecompany added popcorn and caramelcorn to its line in 1984. It then expandedinto cheese puffs and cheese curls beforepurchasing Jensen’s Manufacturing, a nutproducer that had been around since the1930s. Lastly, in 2000, SnakKing acquired Granny Goose, awell-known West Coast-basedsnack producer. Since then, thesnack manufacturer has becomethe king of creating unique prod-ucts that only a forward-thinkingindustry leader can.

All theKing’s Men“We’re a very entre-preneurial company …and I think that has alot to do with our suc-cess,” Levin says.Such entrepreneur-ship stems from thestrength of SnakKing’s managementteam. In addition toJones, Levin’s loyalround tableincludes 16-yearSnak King veter-an and VicePresident ofSales andMarketing JoePapiri.

Together,the threehave nur-tured SnakKing’s suc-

cess, which lies in its ability to developinnovative, premium and often Mexican-inspired snacks that complement, ratherthan copy, what’s already on the shelf.

“We rely on Joe’s strength, from a cre-ativity standpoint,” Jones says. “He’s real-ly good at using not only his own person-

al ideas, but ideas that he sees in the mar-ketplace, ideas that are on other productsthat aren’t snack foods, concepts, thingsthat are hot, things that make sense. He’sable to throw out some ideas, and as ateam, we’re able to pull those together

Continued on page 7

An Innovative EmpireSnak King relies on innovative shapes, textures and flavor profiles to bolster the presence of itsdistinctive El Sabroso and Jensen’s Orchard brands and to differentiate them from the competition.

“Instead of doing topical seasonings, we wanted to make the prod-uct different, more three-dimensional,” says Joe Papiri, vice presi-dent of sales and marketing. “We play with the base material,different blends, ingredients.”

The ultimate goal requires the creation of proprietary prod-ucts that are “completely different from anything that’s on themarketplace,” adds Ron Jones, president and COO.

The El Sabroso brand accomplishes just that, and in severalways. Although it initially offered only two products — pork rinds andcracklins — the line now encompasses traditional Mexican-oriented snacks, such as chili-and-cit-rus-seasoned Churritos. It also includes a variety of tortilla chips with great mass appeal, such as

the top-selling Guacachip (“a savory corn snack with the buttery, richflavor of ripe avocados,” according to company literature), Jalapeñitos(a combination of fire-roasted jalapeños, stone-ground corn andManchego, Asadero and Cotija cheeses) and Salsitas (made with realtomatoes, avocados, stone-ground corn, and a touch of lime, and sea-soned with tomato, onion, garlic, avocado and jalapeño spices).

About 40 to 50 stock-keeping units (SKUs) now make up the ElSabroso brand. The traditional Mexican snacks are sold nationally andinternationally.

“El Sabroso has universal appeal, selling very well in the Mexican marketplace, as well as inthe upscale markets, with its bold flavors and high quality,” Levin says.

Although it started out as a nut line, the Jensen’s Orchard brand now is positioned as a naturaland organic foods brand, which includes Veggie Chips (made with real potato, tomato andspinach flavors) and the new tomato, olive oil and basil-based Bruschetta Chips.

Although the Veggie Chip is a specialty/gourmet-style snack marketed toward adults, Papiriwas surprised to learn that children have embraced the product, too.

“Kids are very open to new ideas,” he says, citing the various colors of the potato-flavored chips.Like all of Snak King’s products, offerings from Jensen’s Orchard are trans fat-free, which

adds to the brand’s healthful storyline.“Everything is clean — no artificial flavors or colorings,” Papiri notes. “We’re cultivating the

traditional natural food stores, as well as the natural food departments in traditional grocery.”Between its brands, Snak King offers an extensive array of products for all types of snackers.

The company stays ahead of the competition by offering one-of-a-kind items that can’t be easilyduplicated.

“We’re coming out with [fewer] new products, but what we’re coming out with is better,”Papiri says.



and … take a look … at what makessense for us.”

As chief operating officer, Jones initial-ly focused on the operational and finan-

cial sides of the busi-ness, but he was pro-moted to president and

began overseeing alldaily operations justone year later.

“Ron’s brought alot to the party,”Levin says. “He hasmore of the profes-sional manager expe-rience that we need atthis point in ourgrowth cycle.

“Over the last fewyears, I’ve been tryingto professionalizemany parts of thecompany,” he adds.“As you get bigger,you have to have

more controls, the rightcontrols, the kind of con-

trols that help you deliver consistency andquality on a regular basis … but not somuch control that they stifle innovationand creativity.”

To that end, Snak King recentlystrengthened its sales and operations

team. As a result, the company has beenrunning better than ever, Jones says, withhigher levels of efficiency and quality, andconsistent sales gains.

“We focused on what we could do toshore up some of the weaknesses — theconsistency of the product, some of thecost-saving ideas, some of the profession-alism on how we go to market,” Jonessays.

The new management structure alsohas allowed Levin to “get out of thedetails of the day-to-day … and spendmore time on the big picture,” heexplains.

Keys to the KingdomThe big picture has changed greatly sincethe disaster in 2004.

After Levin and his team were surethey were going to survive the tragedy,they started considering the future of theSnak King facility. They decided to takethe opportunity to rebuild the plant forthe better by investing in a new roof, anew floor and new equipment that wouldenhance their efficiency, consistency andcapacity.

By the end of the year, the companyplans to showcase its crowning glory: anoperation that features some of the mostautomated, state-of-the-art systems in the

Continued on page 8


Brands ofOpportunityTo reach as many consumers as possible,Snak King targets almost every trade chan-nel, including convenience stores,grocery/supermarket, mass, club and vend-ing. In some cases, different snacks findhomes in specific parts of the market. The ElSabroso Guacachip, for example, has hadgreat success at the grocery level.Consumers who shop traditional club storesalso can find Snak King’s unique offerings.

“Your traditional club store is looking forinnovative products that kind of challenge orprovide a treasure hunt for their members,”says Joe Papiri, vice president of sales andmarketing for Snak King.

The manufacturer sometimes providesproduct samples — a tactic that’s “highlyencouraged” by club stores— to entice consumers topurchase and to spreadword of mouth, Papiri adds.

In another effort to fur-ther its business, Snak Kingis updating much of itspackaging to betterreflect the quality andingenuity of the product.

Last, but not least,Snak King will soonappeal to the diversethrong of baseball fans inthe Los Angeles areathrough a new brandingagreement.

“We just signed adeal sponsoring the L.A.Dodgers as part of ourlocal marketing effort toget our authentic tortillachip bags out there,” Papiri says.

El Sabroso tortilla chips will be servedalong with nacho cheese throughout DodgerStadium this baseball season. The El Sabrosobrand also will be plastered on menu boardsand billboards throughout the stadium.


Nuts are among the snacks offered by Snak King’s Jensen’s Orchard line of all-natural, organic products.


industry. (See “Making the Best of aRoyal Mess,” for details.)

“It’s easy to spend money, but it’sanother thing to spend money wisely,”Levin says. “It sounds easy to build aplant, but it’s usually a multiyear project.”

“Especially if you’re not prepared,”adds Jones, noting that Snak King had tostart over “from ground zero.”

Despite the struggle, Snak King hasproven itself a survivor. By July of thisyear, the company will have rebuilt itskingdom and refocused on its mission ofdelivering both tried-and-true and trulyoriginal products to its loyal consumers.

“There are a lot of things on the draw-ing board, once we get our capacityback,” Papiri says. “We have some innov-ative concepts that we’re looking at forlate 2006 into 2007.”

With its eyes on the future, Snak Kingsoon will reign again. SF&WB


About 18 months later, productiontoday at the 177,000-sq.-ft. facilityreflects the old adage that necessity istruly the mother of invention. As SnakKing continues its $30 million remodeling,reorganization and upgrading of the plant,

By Dan Malovany

Less than a week after disaster struckin October 2004, Snak King restartedproduction of its pork rind line,

which was only slightly affected by thepartial collapse of its roof, subsequentflooding by its fire suppression system,and a fire in one of its two environmen-

tal emissions devices.In just a few short weeks, employees

cleaned up and relocated the company’stortilla chip line and began cranking outthe signature products sold under its ElSabroso and Jensen’s Orchard brands, aswell as its private label offerings.

Royal Mes

Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery - MARCH 2006

Making the Best Of a


s

Snak King’s tortilla chip line produces 3,000 lb. of product an hour. Inset photo:Snak King’s Barry Levin and SF&WB’s DanMalovany check out one of the plant’s newscaling systems.

Snak King’s tortilla chip line produces 3,000 lb. of product an hour. Inset photo:Snak King’s Barry Levin and SF&WB’s DanMalovany check out one of the plant’s newscaling systems.

it’s not surprising that operations are anything but normal. Howcould they be? The collapsed roof knocked out some 40,000 sq.ft. of production space.

Despite the tight quarters, the City of Industry, Calif., plant isrunning at full tilt, cranking out a wide variety of snacks that aresold across the country. In addition to the sheer determination toget production up and running as soon as possible, Snak Kingrelied on its employees’ improvisational thinking, even if it meantjerry-rigging lines and shoehorning systems into almost everynook and cranny.

“The design today doesn’t make much sense,” acknowledgesRon Jones, Snak King’s president and COO. “We had to putthings where they could fit. Sometimes, that meant fitting equip-ment into different angles and into any other space possible.”

To relocate the tortilla chip line, for instance, Snak King cut itsnut roasting area in half, squeezed in its four scale/baggers andplaced a temporary wall between the two production areas toeliminate any allergen cross-contamination.

The tortilla chip line produces upwards of 3,000 lb. an hour in aspace that would normally house an operation half of its size in capac-ity. Production runs in a giant U-shape around the edge of the room,with packaging systems flowing into the open area in the middle.

Specifically, after mixing corn flour, the batch is sheeted out,roll cut into triangles and fried. After traveling through a three-tier cooler, the tortilla chips flow along a vibrating conveyor intoa seasoner/salter station. From there, bucket conveyors take theproducts up to one of four new automatic scalers that exactlymeasure out products to form/fill/seal (f/f/s) or to other packagingmachines. The high-speed packaging systems can produce up to140 single-serve size bags a minute.

Pork rinds and other meatsnacks are produced in anotherwalled-off area for inspection bythe U.S. Department of Agriculture.The line produces about 1,200 lb.of product per hour. After fryingand salting in one room, the snacks



Snak King’s plant produces afull line of products, includingextruded cheese snacks (top photo) on a new line and(bottom photos) pork rinds in aUSDA-inspected department.

are conveyed to a second room, wherethree seasoners, scales and f/f/s baggersproduce 35 to 80 packages a minute,depending on their sizes.

Yet another area houses a caramel cornline that produces 1,800 lb. an hour and apopcorn operation with a 1,000-lb. capac-ity. In addition, Snak King wedged in twonew versatile extruder lines that bake orfry 1,200 to 1,400 lb. of cheese curls,cheese puffs, hot fries, angel puffs andother corn products. Although it’s not thebest of situations, every inch of space isbeing used to its maximum potential.

The next trick for the improv artistswill be to keep production runningsmoothly as it upgrades the facility. Ifall goes well, the refurbished plantshould be fully up and running sometime this summer, says Barry Levin,chairman and CEO.

Except for pork rinds and roasted nuts,which must be produced in separate areas,most production will run in a straight line


The El Sabroso line includes a number ofMexican-inspired products, including

tortilla strips.

from one end of the plant to another. Inthe main production area, there will betwo tortilla chip lines producing 8,000 lb.per hour and four extruded snack lines, inaddition to existing popcorn and caramelcorn lines. The two additional extrudedlines will boost combined capacity ofthose snacks to 2,500 lb. an hour.

Some operations, such as its caramelcorn line, will be refurbished with newcontrols, piping and platform supports,Jones says. New packaging systems alsoare being installed to provide greater flexi-bility and to serve a wide variety of distri-bution channels.

In all, Jones estimates that about 80%of Snak King’s equipment will be newand provide much-needed capacity,improved efficiencies and potentiallygreater versatility to produce a variety of

new products.Already, many of the systems have

been delivered and are sitting at a nearbywarehouse, waiting to be installed. Toprepare for their installation, Snak Kinghas built a new wooden roof where theprevious one collapsed, but the companystill needs to install fire suppression sys-tems, new floors, new utilities and repaintthe walls.

The goal, say Levin, is to transform thefacility into a showcase operation in thesalted snack industry.

“When you come back, it’s not goingto look the same,” he explains. “It won’tlook like [the same plant] at all.” SF&WB

Editor’s Note: Stay tuned for part two.Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery plans torevisit Snak King’s plant when the refur-bishing is completed later this year.

About 80% of Snak King’sequipment will be newand provide much-neededcapacity, improved efficiencies and greaterversatility to produce avariety of new products.

Reprinted with permission from Snack Food and Wholesale Bakery March 2006

from left: ron jones, president · from left: ron jones, president and coo; barry levin, chairman...

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