WICHITA — The Dold Foods plant at 2929 N. Ohio is expanding.
The company, which is part of Hormel, has an almost $1.5 million building permit for an addition. It’s a new place to house water treatment equipment, which will be updated.
The Dold Foods plant, which has almost 300 employees, produces bacon for Hormel’s retail customers and food service clientele. That includes several kinds of Hormel bacon brands, such as Hormel Black Label.
WICHITA — The fixer is back.
Michael Monteferrante, the turnaround specialist who first came to Wichita in 2003 as CEO of Optima Bus, is returning as the new president and CEO of Envision.
“It’s a nonprofit, and we didn’t know if someone with as entrepreneurial spirit as Michael has would want to make the leap to the nonprofit world,” says Sam Williams, chairman of Envision’s board.
“This opportunity I’m looking at completely different than I have at previous opportunities of employment,” Monteferrante says. “I can’t be more excited than to take all the things I’ve learned over the years and apply it to a company that helps people.”
In addition to serving the blind and low-vision community through services and education, Envision is the second-largest employer of blind and low-vision people nationally. Envision Industries has a number of production and distribution divisions.
“I’ve always been extremely passionate about the mission of Envision,” Monteferrante says.
He still remembers his first tour of the Envision plant on Water Street years ago.
“I could not tell who was blind and who wasn’t, and I just said, ‘Wow. I want to be a part of this. This is one of the most inspirational plant tours I’ve had.’”
Monteferrante sees bigger things for Envision, though.
“While it has grown – it’s grown tremendously over the years – I believe that the boundaries of growth for the mission of Envision … are endless,” he says. “I’ve always felt that the mission at Envision could be more than a Wichita-based, Kansas-based situation.”
“Well, we’ve had a great tour going on, on a Wichita-made motorcycle. That’s a Big Dog made in Wichita. Great company.”
– Gov. Sam Brownback on the Kansas Republicans’ Road Map for Growth Tour Friday in Wichita where he referenced Big Dog Motorcycles, which went out of business last year
WICHITA — Newton-based Knork Flatware has landed a deal to sell its products in 650 Bed Bath & Beyond stores.
“It’s obviously going to impact sales substantially for us,” Knork president Tom Carson says. “It’s probably our largest retail account for a box store.”
The company began working with the chain in 2008.
“Bed Bath & Beyond started as a test,” says Knork vice president of marketing Lacy Simon.
Initially, the flatware that features its signature knife and fork in one utensil — a Knork — was in only the Wichita Bed Bath & Beyond stores.
“It’s just built from there,” Simon says. “The product sold very well.”
The number grew to 200 before jumping to 650, though Carson notes there are many more Bed Bath & Beyond stores than that, and he’d like to be in all of them. Knork is on the chain’s bridal registry as well.
“That’s done very well for us, too,” Carson says.
“I like to get Knork anywhere there’s heavy bridal,” Simon says.
There are 200 Dillard’s stores that sell Knork.
“Right now, Dillard’s is exploring the opportunities to expand, and that might be a possibility for spring 2013,” Simon says. “Macy’s is looking at a test for next fall.”
Target and Kohl’s also carry Knork online but not in their stores. Simon says Knork’s extensive manufacturing process makes it more expensive than other flatware lines sold in those stores.
There are now about 50 Knork products and $2 million in annual sales for the company, which started in 2004 with one product that Wichita resident Mike Miller created.
“It was kind of gadgetry,” Carson says. “A fork that cuts like a knife.”
The issue was “just overcoming some of the consumer skeptics of the new kind of unfamiliar product,” Simon says.
“It was quite a struggle at the beginning.”
It sometimes still is.
“It is truly such an experiential product,” Simon says. She says the goal is always to put the product into someone’s hands.
“You’ve really got to put it in your hands to experience the functionality of it,” Carson says.
Starting out, Carson says the company sold direct to other businesses.
WICHITA — Last fall, when Have You Heard? broke the news that Coleman Co. was moving its leadership team back to Colorado, president and CEO Robert Marcovitch didn’t characterize it as moving the company’s headquarters.
“Well, I think Coleman’s headquarters is in the United States of America if you ask me. I think on the global scale.”
That’s not how they’re taking it in Colorado.
Over the weekend, the Denver Post reported: “The Coleman Co., known for its array of camping products, will mark the opening of its global headquarters in Golden on Monday, about 15 years after it left the city for Wichita.”
Marcovitch initially wouldn’t say where in the Denver metropolitan area the company would locate, but speculation was it would be returning to its former headquarters in Golden.
The Post reports that’s the case.
“The company is moving back into the same $4.5 million custom-built, log-cabin-style headquarters it built in 1996.”
The paper says Coleman is announcing changes to its headquarters today.
WICHITA — In late December, Have You Heard? reported that part of the former Big Dog Motorcycles space at 1520 E. Douglas is under contract.
There’s still not a done deal for the 20,000-square-foot warehouse space near Douglas and Hydraulic, which is east of where Big Dog’s 60,000-square-foot showroom was, but now it’s clear who the potential buyer is.
Nearby neighbor Don McGinty is eyeing the space for his McGinty Machine, which is in a 43,000 square-foot building at First and Hydraulic.
“We’re doing our due diligence now,” McGinty says. “It won’t be definite until I say I really want it.”
It depends on whether he can get tax abatements on the property and new machinery he wants to buy. McGinty says he’s looking at a $3 million to $5 million expansion. He says he’s likely to hire 10 to 15 people over the next couple of years.
“We’re just kicking it up a notch,” McGinty says.
That includes likely developing a sheet metal fabrication shop that will do table-top assemblies to serve aircraft companies.
“In the future, they’re going to want (us) to build the small assemblies, maybe to go into the bigger assemblies,” McGinty says.
His father and uncle started the company in the 1940s by making small aircraft parts.
“Now we go up to 40-foot long,” McGinty says.
More and more, he says, aircraft companies want their machine shop vendors to be one-stop shops for all their parts needs.
“That’s the direction we’re moving,” McGinty says.
To make that possible, his first choice is to expand into the Big Dog space. If he doesn’t get the abatements, though, McGinty says he might have to look elsewhere.
“It’s not really my desire,” he says.
McGinty thinks abatements make sense for Wichita for a couple of reasons.
WICHITA — Wichita-based A Box 4 U is expanding its blast-resistant module business.
Since the mid-1990s, Jeff Lange’s company has sold and leased blast-resistant modules for petroleum refineries and chemical plants.
“We create a safe haven for employees,” says John Potts, who is in sales for the company.
The modules could be an office, a factory or even a restroom.
Now, instead of solely using a third-party fabricator to make the boxes, the company is going to begin doing its own finishing work to help with the process.
“We’re just assisting . . . because we’ve got so much work going,” Potts says.
In addition to the company’s office at 4340 S. West St., A Box 4 U is also now leasing a 20,000-square-foot warehouse at 4225 W. Bounous to do the finishing work.
Ted Branson of Landmark Commercial Real Estate handled the deal.
Potts says it will still rely on another company to do most of the work, but he says it made sense for A Box 4 U to take on some of the work itself.
“We’re growing pretty quickly here.”
WICHITA — In a meeting this morning, Coleman Co. officials informed employees that the company is establishing a leadership center in the Denver metropolitan area.
The new center will house some sales, marketing and product teams that, according to a release, “will have the opportunity to relocate from Wichita.”
It’s not clear if Coleman considers its new leadership center to be the company’s new headquarters.
The majority of Coleman’s 800 Wichita workers won’t be affected.
The company also is investing in its Wichita and New Braunfels, Texas, facilities with a multimillion dollar capital initiative.
“These investment initiatives, including the establishment of a Leadership Center in the Denver area, best position the company for the future and provide a desirable platform to serve our global customer base in the most efficient manner,” said Robert Marcovitch, Coleman’s new president and CEO, in the release.
“The Denver metropolitan area is an important hub for the outdoor industry and will provide us with several key advantages as a global business competing on the world stage,” he said.
“We are, however, absolutely committed to continuing our investment in our Kansas based enterprises.”
The moves will happen over the next 18 months or so.
WICHITA — Mini-Mac Inc., which manufactures spacers for the aerospace industry, isn’t going to be so small anymore.
“We have outgrown our facilities,” owner Bob McNamee says.
He’s currently in about 2,500 square feet at 1912 N. 159th St. East.
His new space, which he’ll move into in the early part of 2012, is more than 10,000 square feet over three buildings at 1703 Southwest Boulevard.
Brent Stewart of KW Commercial and Ted Branson of Landmark Commercial Real Estate handled the deal.
Mini-Mac will take 5,600 square feet in the main building on the new property, and the rest of the space will be available for lease.
This is the first time the business has moved since McNamee’s late father, Mac, started the business in 1970.
“It was my dad’s hobby that turned into a business,” McNamee says. “He always had a machine shop in the basement I always remember as a kid growing up.”
McNamee says his father “would do odds and ends for people.”
“He did that in his spare time, that was his passion. And then when he retired from Boeing, he had some people that were in the distribution business, and they encouraged him to get into the manufacturing of what we now do today.”
UPDATED — Looking for a little inspiration during this tough economic time?
Tramco founder Leon Trammell has some insight to offer.
He and freelance writer Brian Whepley have written “How Underdogs Win” about Trammell’s experience in business (available at Amazon.com and CreateSpace.com).
“It’s scary as hell to start a business,” Trammell says.
Several other companies share their stories for the book as well, including Wichita businesses Hiller Inc., High Touch, Greenway Electric and Kansas companies Solomon Corp. and Cobalt Boats.
Trammell founded Tramco in 1967. The company manufactures bulk material-handling conveyors and does business in every state and 57 countries.
“I did not give myself a chance to fail,” Trammell says. “You just cannot have a failure plan. If you have a failure plan, you’ll probably fail.”
So what’s his plan for success?
“You need a niche, and then be persistent,” Trammell says, quickly adding, “But you know, being persistent is kind of elusive.
“I’ve been persistent on an investment I made, and it hasn’t paid out.”
Trammell says you have to relentlessly pursue being excellent.
“Whatever you do you have to be the best at it,” he says. “You never share with your neighbor a mediocre job on anything, do you? No, you share the good job. The good service. So you have to be the best.
“Then it boils down to the Golden Rule. And I know that is hokey. . . . But you have to treat people the way you want to be treated.”
Why bother?