Baking & Snack - March 2020 - 29

OPERATIONS
Kemper Foods International

Kemper Foods embraces change, invests in automation and isn't
afraid of taking little risks that heap on great rewards.
by Dan Malovany
In his pursuit of the next big thing, Mike Kemper looks
for it everywhere and sees it all the time. Of course, his
vision is slightly skewed from everyone else's. That's because his attention is centered on transforming everyday
foods into munchable snacks that fit between people's
fingers - or neatly in the palm of their hand.
Maybe that's why for his business, Kemper Foods
International, the vast food industry is such a
small world.
"We get excited about innovation. We never turn it
off," noted Mr. Kemper, CEO and founder of the New
Albany, IN-based company. "I'll find myself in a restaurant eating something that is so good, homestyle and
delicious, and I immediately start thinking, 'How can I
make this portable and handheld?' Our focus is on poppable, shareable, on-the-go, fun food."
To be more exact, Kemper Foods specializes in 0.75to 4.0-oz filled, encrusted baked snacks. For breakfast,
think about a blackberry jelly and cream cheese filled
mini bagel or a sausage-and-gravy biscuit that can be
eaten without dipping, dripping or spilling. Or for lunch,
picture turning a classic oversized deli sandwich into an
on-the-run snack.
"One of the best things that we've ever done is taken the greatest rye bread that you've ever eaten - with
caraway seeds - that's proofed and baked and filled it

with corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and 1000
Island dressing," Mr. Kemper recalled. "You can sit
here and eat it until your tongue slaps your brain. It's
that outstanding."
To establish the company's distinct mindset for serving the food industry, Mr. Kemper created a culture that
strives to upend the status quo. It's not so much about
disruption. Rather, it's about melding product imagination with process adaptation to deliver something eyecatching to consumers as quickly as possible.
"In this industry today, you have to move on a dime
to make a change," Mr. Kemper explained. "You have to
be fresh and new with innovation. It involves being first
to the market, speed of innovation and not being afraid
of change. 'Be afraid of not changing;' that's what I try to
instill in everyone here, every day."
Kemper Foods' ability to adjust on the fly allows the
co-manufacturer to serve everyone from midsized to
major consumer packaged goods companies and foodservice chains. Its 51,000-sq-ft manufacturing facility
houses a battery of equipment that can be mixed and
matched like industrial Legos to tailor a process to a
baked snack's specifications. Then, Kemper Foods runs
production at rates that currently vary from 110,000 to
160,000 pieces an hour - or 1 to 1.5 million or more
a day. Those items are blast frozen and then conveyed

Mike Kemper (center),
the company's founder
and owner, along with his
sons Brennan (left) and
Matthew (right), spearhead
product innovation while
overseeing the company's
51,000-sq-ft plant.
Photos by Bryan Moberly Photography

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Baking & Snack - March 2020

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