New national contracts fuel Wixon Fontarome’s growth
By Steve Jagler, SBT Executive Editor
Peter Gottsacker fondly refers to Wixon Fontarome’s St. Francis plant as his "little Willy Wonka factory."
Truth be told, with six buildings and 450,000 square feet, the plant is anything but little.
And it’s busting at its seams – busting so much that Gottsacker’s primary mission right now is managing the company’s growth. For example:
– Gottsacker, who is the firm’s president, is in the very early stages of engineering an employee-buyout of the company, which is owned by Fontarome S.A. in France.
— Wixon Fontarome recently opened a distribution center in Cergy, France.
— Wixon Fontarome is very close to acquiring a company on the West Coast to enhance Wixon’s geographic presence west of the Rocky Mountains.
— Wixon Fontarome recently landed a contract with a national retail chain and is on the verge of winning two other national accounts that will require Gottsacker to add second and third shifts of workers to his 225-employee workforce to keep up with the demand.
Wixon Fontarome appears to be immune to recession and even the specter of war.
That’s because, whether the economy is good or bad, people eat.
The secret to Wixon Fontarome’s success is anticipating just how and what people are going to eat, Gottsacker says.
If you’ve ever eaten a soft-serve ice cream cone at McDonald’s, munched on a Klement’s or Johnsonville sausage, sucked on a Tootsie Roll Pop, nibbled on a Sarah Lee dessert, devoured some Dean’s dip, coaxed down some cough syrup or even puffed on a cigarette, you’ve tasted Wixon Fontarome’s products.
Wixon Fontarome, quite simply, creates flavorings. Those flavorings make food and pharmaceutical products taste better.
Ranging from large volumes of cinnamon, pepper and black licorice to specialty spices, the company’s flavors are omnipresent in products throughout America’s retail shelves.
Wixon Fontarome has grown from a boutique firm of $3 million in sales in 1980 to nearly $50 million in 2002. Gottsacker expects the company’s revenue to grow 12% to 20% this year.
"We should be up to two full shifts by this spring, and we’ll be looking at adding a third in operations," Gottsacker says. "We’re looking at an acquisition on the West Coast. We’ve got two primary targets there. We continue to grow. We clearly will need to add a substantial number of people."
That additional staff will be needed to help Wixon Fontarome meet the demands from a multiyear, multimillion dollar contract the company recently landed with Kitchen Collection Inc., a Chillicothe, Ohio-based retail chain of 172 stores.
Kitchen Collection stores, including its stores at the Johnson Creek Factory Outlets Mall and the Kenosha Original Outlet Mall, will carry a complete line of Wixon Fontarome’s spices, seasonings, rubs and marinades.
Beginning in May, the products will be sold under various brand names, including the Kitchen Collection gourmet line and the Babe Winkelman line of marinades and fish batters.
"This is a significant contract for us with a premiere company," Gottsacker says.
Wixon Fontarome has three primary divisions: industrial ingredients, including bulk spice and seasoning blends; consumer products, including ready-to-use food mixes on the shelves of Pick ‘N Save and Wal-Mart stores; and chemicals, including ingredients for heart medications and other pharmaceutical applications.
Inside the Wixon Fontarome complex, nestled away in a quiet neighborhood north of General Mitchell International Airport, the workforce encompasses a diverse set of characters.
Chemical engineers with Ph. D’s work alongside professional flavorists, home economists and packaging and processing employees. At any given moment, scientists in long white laboratory coats mingle with processing workers who operate large machinery.
The place as much resembles a biotech laboratory as it does a grandmother’s kitchen.
In fact, the company even has a kitchen, in which the corporate chefs of prospective customers visit and taste-test Wixon Fontarome’s latest concoctions.
The company produces about 25 new flavors per month, Gottsacker says.
Being a flavorist, someone who simply determines whether something tastes good or not, is part science and part art, Gottsacker says.
"Keeping up those talent pools is really a challenge for us. They’re hard to come by locally," Gottsacker says.
Wixon Fontarome’s growth also has been fueled by the strong management team Gottsacker has assembled:
— Randy Hindt, director of operations, formerly of Kraft Foods,
— Cozy Helm, director of research and development, formerly of Nutrasweet,
— Peter Caputa, chief financial officer, formerly of Deloitte & Touche and Stokely Foods,
— And Chuck Ehemann, executive vice president, a veteran leader at the company.
"I think our growth has been attributable to a good management team," Gottsacker says, noting that he has cherry-picked some prime talent from other corporations. "You find out who the good people are. If you know they have good talent, you hire them.
"I’ll tell ya, I’m not a smart guy. The success is due to that team and the people they brought in," he says. "I’m proud of them. These are some horses. These new contracts we’re going for are a result of a focus on our core competencies and selling to our strengths. We’ve got a small company that is a national player. It’s the best of both worlds."
The Gottsacker File
Name: Peter Gottsacker
Age: 49
Title: President, Wixon Fontarome Inc., 1390 E. Bolivar Ave., St. Francis
Previous employment: President, Schwarz Pharma
Education: Bachelor of arts degree, University of Notre Dame
Family: Wife Beth; children Erin, Jody, Margaret, Elise, Peter and Kalee
Favorite Movie: "Monty Python and the Holy Grail."
Greatest advice: "It came from my father, who sold insurance door-to-door, and that became one of the largest independent insurance agencies in the state of Wisconsin. He said, ‘One thing they will never teach you in school is how important people are, how powerful a team can be. You will always read about how tremendous one individual is to a company. Don’t believe it. Find your team.’"
Feb. 21, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee
