Baking & Snack - June 2024 - 24

JTM FOODS
as business leaders in the Wichita area. "
Pooley pointed out that Tenex Capital Management,
which bought a majority share of JTM in 2021, provided
valuable resources as well.
" Tenex, our private equity ownership, provided us
JTM has more than
50 pie formulations,
but Apple and
Cherry remain the
top sellers.
ity, suspecting that would be easier to meet the aggressive
timeline leaders set forth.
But the developers that the company found and the various
government entities that lent a hand made a new facility
in Wichita an attractive choice.
" We came to Wichita, and the public-private partnership
and cohesiveness and organization with which the
folks in Wichita presented us were very impressive, and
I think we felt like we were wanted in Wichita, " said Kyle
Hinsdale, JTM executive vice president and chief financial
officer.
He said government and business leaders became involved
because they were looking to diversify the city's
economic base, which has traditionally been dependent
The Wichita facility
is expecting to
have a second line
running in July but
has room for eight
or more lines and
ample storage as
production expands.
on the aviation industry.
" We had involvement of the lieutenant governor
at the state office, we had county commissioners, we
had all local representatives and the mayor of Wichita
was heavily involved, " Hinsdale said. " There are business
leaders who have developed a greater Wichita
partnership which was instrumental in getting us to
Wichita. A lot of private, state, local, county as well
resources that helped us to find the facility, work with
those government agencies that Kyle is referencing and
actually had a role in helping to build out the facility as
well, " he said. " Those were important resources for us
that allowed us to do it within the timeframe. "
Building a solid culture
The leaders at JTM Foods say they are the No. 1 handheld
snack pie manufacturer in the world, making 78%
more retail pies than the closest competitor. In addition
to the company's own JJ's Bakery brand of pies, it produces
private brands and co-manufactures pies for retail
brands. JTM produces 5.7 million cases of product annually,
making handheld pies, crispy rice treats, edible
cookie dough, baked cookies, brownies and donut holes.
The company's level of automation in handheld pies is
one of the reasons it dominates in this category. Pooley
pointed to two things that set JTM apart from others.
" There have been others that have left the market because
they could not compete with the automation, " he
said. " That efficiency, that ability to make product, and
do it at a low cost makes it difficult for others to compete
with us. That is a moat. Our understanding of the category,
how to move the category forward, our category
management capabilities and the experience we have
on the team - all those elements make the commercial
24 Baking & Snack June 2024 / www.bakingbusiness.com
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Baking & Snack - June 2024

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