Baking & Snack - April 2005 - 38

FOODS

ᮤ Seasoned tortilla chips make their way to the
net-weighers above the vertical f/f/s baggers.

FOODS

ᮡ Still pliable
ia after frying, hot taco shells cool
briefly before
efo line operators gather them and
insert protective
ote
paper spacers.
introduce
u Chi-Chi's flour tortillas to
retail markets.
m
To date, Chi-Chi's
items ha
have all been corn-based: tortillas, tortilla
to
chips and taco shells.
Casaa de Oro's Louisville plant
markets
ts to various food sectors. "We
serve re
retail grocers and supermarkkets under the Chi-Chi's and Mesa
ke
brands,"
rand
ds, Mr. Longacre explained.
"The other
th sectors we serve are restaurants, ffood service and contract
manufacturing.
ring.
ing.. T
Thus we connect
with three major
or growth
gro
g
areas of the
food industry," hee sum
ssummarized.
The Louisville site gives
g
access to
roughly 50% of the
roug
he U
US population,
and
an
d such
uch major metropolitan
met
areas

40 / BAKING & SNACK / April 2005

as Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis and even Philadelphia are within
a day's drive. Casa de Oro's retail
products reach store shelves not only
through distribution to warehouses
operated by retail grocery customers
but also through a DSD network operated by a third party. National institutional distributors handle QSR
and food service products. Products
move in ambient shelf stable, refrigerated and frozen forms.
FOOD ENTREPRENEURS. Casa de
Oro (the company's Spanish name
translates as "house of gold") entered
a new phase of existence with its
purchase on Jan. 30, 2004, by Plaza
Belmont from ConAgra Foods, Inc.
Both Mr. Longacre and Mr. Kraut
observed that the change in owner-

ship brought a new entrepreneurial
approach, which proved to be a real
culture change. They said that decision-making has been pushed down
to the operations level, and decisions
are quick. At Louisville, the past year
has brought a complete changeover
in management and reorganization
of production staffing. The results
not only better plant efficiencies but
also better staff morale.
"The business has changed a
tremendous amount," Mr. Longacre
said of the past year under the new
owners. With oversight from Plaza
Belmont partner Bob Parnow, the
Casa de Oro team carefully analyzed
all aspects of the business with special attention to cost structures.
Digging into the cost structure at
Louisville, Casa de Oro managers
found efficiencies lagging because of
a persistent pattern of overstaffing.
Under previous managers, the solution to production problems was to
add staff, resulting in substantial underutilization of labor. The new team
arrived at the decision to downsize
by 30 people to a current employment of 125. Some attrition occurred
simply because of the culture change
brought on by the new ownership.
"We really wanted to reorganize and
downsize only once and not to drag it
out," Mr. Longacre said. "We looked at
every product and every line, asking
what is the best, most efficient way
to run and staff the line. How many
people 'should' be involved?
"With fewer people to monitor,
supervision became more efficient," he
continued. "Since December, we have
seen our measurements of production
efficiency increase, and we have also
seen morale improve. The re-manning
changed the attitude of a lot of people.
Their responsibilities changed, and
they had to step up in their jobs."
A good example of what the new attitudes can accomplish was described
by Mr. Longacre as "the miracle of the

Baking & Snack - April 2005

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