100 Years of Planters

P s e r a e t n n uts a l P Celebrating

100 Years of a

Suffolk Icon September 19, 2013 A Publication of The Suffolk News-Herald

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100 Years of Planters

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100 Years of Planters

And he hailed from Suffolk ...

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He might be a man of the world now, but this dapper Planters icon has his roots right here in Suffolk, where he’ll always have a certain look.

A ’Biscuit’ in the peanut plant

This lifetime Planters employee is the second of three generations to work in the Suffolk plant. And his family is not the only one with multiple generations there.

The nutty profession

What could be more fun than wearing a Mr. Peanut costume to attend events?

Well, doing all that and then hopping into the Nutmobile to head out of town!

Same great nuts, Fast new processes

Many things have changed during the 100 years Planters has been processing and packaging nuts in Suffolk but some things are still the same.

Images from the Plant Have a look inside the Culloden Street facility where Planters processes and packages a growing variety of nut and snack products.

Working together Partnerships with other companies, with city officials and with its own employees, have been among the keys to Planters’ continued success.

‘A proud ’moment’ After a dozen years in Suffolk, the plant manager at Planters feels proud and excited to help celebrate the company’s 100th year of local operations.

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100 Years of Planters

And he hailed from Suffolk ...

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In his 13th evolutionary change since 1916, Mr. Peanut wears a mobile headset as a motivational speaker in a new Planters Peanuts ad campaign. The brand mascot has won a special place in the national cultural landscape.

Submitted photo

By Matthew A. Ward Staff Writer

One side of his familiar nutty face wears the monocle that’s been there ever since a Suffolk schoolboy created him nearly a century ago.

But the other sports something new and out of kilter with the rest of his old-timey look. A mobile headset, the kind super-efficient office workers — and motivational speakers — wear.

A new advertising campaign extolling the nutritional virtues of his namesake legume has Mr. Peanut, as a motivational speaker, harnessing the power of positive thinking with a panache that would put Anthony Robbins to shame.

Planters’ new television commercial, with Mr. Peanut voiced by former “Saturday Night Live” star Bill Hader, had its maiden airing only a few weeks ago.

“It’s getting people to think about how nutritional a peanut is,” said Ken Padgett, senior associate brand manager on Planter’s Snack Nuts.

The new ad campaign actually marks the 13th step in the mascot’s slow evolution, since Suffolk’s Antonio Gentile, 13, won a competition when he designed Mr. Peanut in 1916.

“That (Antonio’s design) was the birth of Mr. Peanut as we know it,” Padgett said. “He’s been a great icon for Planters ever since.”

Mr. Peanut’s success as a brand mascot is reflected in the lack of any others as successful over such a long span of time, Padgett said.

Like Mickey Mouse, the peanut man has become

“Some of his images and looks have changed over the years. The changes he has gone through are just to make him contemporary and relevant at that point in time.”

Ken Padgett — Senior Associate Brand Manager, Planters Snack Nuts

increasingly refined over time, while essential elements — monocle, top hat, cane, black pants, white shoes — have remained constant, keeping his classic, timeless look intact.

“Some of his images and looks have changed over the years,” Padgett said. “The changes he has gone through are just to make him contemporary and relevant at that point in time.”

Mr. Peanut first hit national prominence when he was featured on a billboard in Times Square in 1937, Padgett said.

He first graced the streets of New York City as a balloon in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

in 1997, and he has ridden in the Nutmobile during the all-American annual event since 2002.

“In 2004, he won a spot on the Madison Avenue Advertising Walk of Fame,” Padgett said. “He actually has a plaque between 49th Street and 50th Street.”

His mobile headset, joining the monocle, now bringing him firmly into the Information Age, Mr. Peanut is as popular as ever.

He’s an immediately identifiable cultural symbol that even made his way into the “The Hangover Part III.” When Alan, arguably the comedic focal point of the movie franchise, dons a Mr. Peanutesque costume to marry his pawnshop-owner love interest, buddy Phil says, “You look like Mr. Peanut!”

“I didn’t know that,” Padgett said of the recent silver screen nod. “I just think it speaks to the cultural relevance that Mr. Peanut has. He is very culturally relevant.”

Padgett said Kraft owes much to Mr. Peanut for raising awareness of the Planters brand.

“He has been in houses all over America,” he said. “It’s a testament to the brand that he’s stayed as popular as he has.”

Mr. Peanut has more than 570,000 fans on Facebook, Padgett added.

“Mr. Peanut has just been the voice of Planters since 1916,” he said. “He’s just done such a great thing for the brand, bringing that almost human contact with the consumer.”

In the end, Padgett said, Planters Peanuts’ mascot is “communicating with them.”

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100 Years of Planters

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Evolution of Mr. Peanut

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A ’Biscuit’ in the peanut plant

Employee is second of three Planters generations

By R.E. Spears III Editor

You might expect a guy who’s been working around peanuts all his life to be called “Peanut” or “Goober” or something like that.

Sixty-three-year-old Henry Harris has a nickname, but it has nothing to do with the place where he’s

worked his entire adult life.

“They call me ‘Biscuit,” he says. Ever since he was three months old. “I don’t know why; I must have looked like one.”

Whatever they choose to call him, the folks around the Planters facility on Cullodan Street know Harris as a fixture at the plant.

Even as a boy, when both his mother and father

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100 Years of Planters

Photo courtesy of Kraft Foods

Henry Harris has worked for the Planters processing and packaging facility in Suffolk for 45 years. He learned to operate a computer through the company and has worked just about every job on the floor, he says.

Today, he works in shipping and receiving.

worked for the peanut processor in Suffolk, Harris relied on Planters to earn a little income, bringing lunch to workers there during their midday breaks.

“I’ve always been making a little money from Planters,” he laughs.

Harris is one of several second- and third-generation Planters employees in Suffolk. In fact, his son, Eldridge, 46, is now the third generation of the Harris family to work in the plant, serving as a machine operator.

“I’ve always been satisfied,” the elder Harris says. “The whole plant is like family. Some of my best friends are right here in this plant.”

It hasn’t always been easy, he says, but the work has been rewarding.

He even got the chance to work directly with his father before his dad retired.

“I didn’t like it,” he says. “He was harder on me than anyone else.”

Forty-five years after he started his Planters career, Harris now works in shipping and receiving, where he started his Planters career, but he says he’s done just about every job on the floor. He is also serving in his third term as the vice president of Local 2426 of the United Auto Workers union there, and he has been a union officer for more than 30 years.

He took a summer job there when he was a teenager, he recalls, “and summer never ended.”

Of course, there have been plenty of changes during that time.

Before the company moved into its current location in 1994, production was scattered over much of the eight-story building that it formerly occupied.

The work was more physically demanding then, Harris recalls.

“We had five or six people dumping 100-pound bags of peanuts all day,” he says, and there was “a lot more heavy labor.”

Now things are more automated. In fact, Harris learned to use a computer on the job.

“I’ll be honest, I was afraid of computers when we got them,” he recalls.

But the company gave the Booker T. Washington High School graduate the chance to learn, just as it had given him the opportunity to attend the former Frederick College for two years while he worked at the plant.

His education, his experience and his standing in the community have all helped Harris contribute both to Planters and to the neighborhood where it’s located — and where he lives just a block and a half away.

Harris is a trustee at Antioch United Christian Church, where he also serves on the Pastor’s Aid Committee. He has been on the board of directors of Metropolitan Credit Union for about 38 years. He is a lifetime member of the NAACP, and he serves on the Fairgrounds Committee.

Folks might expect someone who spends so much time around peanuts to be completely over them by the time he leaves work.

Not so for Biscuit Harris, though.

He prefers them “blanched, right out of the oven,” he says. “But I just love peanuts, period.”

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The nutty profession

By Matthew A. Ward Staff Writer

Lauren Enkerud, a University of Florida graduate who majored in video production, began her odyssey as a Peanutter about three months ago.

When the opportunity to don a Mr. Peanut suit and drive the Nutmobile came along, she jumped at it.

“Upon graduation, I was trying to find a job, and Kraft was recruiting for both the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile and Planters Peanuts together,” she said.

“In second-round interviews, they mentioned the Nutmobile, and I just thought I’d like to be part of the first year of the Nutmobile going on the road.

“It sounded so exciting and interesting, and I love the idea of traveling around.”

After 2 ½ months and 10 states, the 23-year-old said she was keenly anticipating bringing the Nutmobile to its ancestral home prior to Peanut Fest.

The Nutmobile and Mr. Peanut will visit Suffolk on Oct. 2, providing photo opportunities, children’s activities and games.

Mr. Peanut will be the grand marshal at the Peanut Fest Parade on Oct. 5. Peanut Fest is scheduled for Oct. 10-13.

“Normally, we come into a new city, and people are curious why there’s a large legume in their town,” Enkerud said. “Suffolk makes sense; we are bringing the peanut home.”

Enkerud is one of three Peanutters, the others being graduates of Penn State and Florida International University.

During the course of the year, they’ll travel probably 30,000 miles, Enkerud said, sharing the driving in the Nutmobile, a converted 2011 Isuzu W4-series box truck that measures about 375 peanuts long.

“We had three hours of driver-training during orientation,” she said. “It’s definitely a little bit different

than my Toyota Corolla.”

In their nutty, salty ride, the Peanutters visit community celebrations, like Peanut Fest, as well as other events, including store openings, sporting events, like NASCAR and a New York Jets game, and concerts, such as Kenny Chesney.

“I love meeting all the people that come up to us,” Enkerud said.

“One of the reasons I was attracted to a video-production major is that I’m a big fan of stories, whether I’m telling them or they’re being told to me. Every day … (in the Nutmobile) people tell us their stories.”

She was thrilled recently when a 93-year-old woman approached the Nutmobile to meet Mr. Peanut, whose suit the Peanutters share wearing.

For Enkerud, driving around America in a giant legume is a great first job out of college.

“When you drive the Nutmobile on the highway, people are always honking, waving and taking pictures,” she said.

“I have been doing things I never thought I’d do.

Last week I went skydiving for the first time. I went whitewater rafting. I’m seeing all these new cities and towns I would never get to see if I was trapped behind a desk.”

She said it is an “amazing job experience. I’m getting so many skills I never had before. To get paid to travel to represent a world-class brand … you definitely can’t snake into town in a Nutmobile.”

Enkerud concluded, “Before I sit down behind a desk, I want to sit down behind the wheel for a while.”

Kraft Foods spokeswoman Lynne Galia said the first year of the Nutmobile has been a big success so far.

“Certainly the hope would be that it’s something we would be able to bring back in future years,” she said.

“It has been a really positive experience for people all over the country, and certainly for our Peanutters who are driving it.”

Submitted photoS

Top, Peanutters Lauren Enkerud, Adam Escobar and Danielle Poole jump for joy beside Mr. Peanut, in front of their Nutmobile. Above, Enkerud, one of three Peanutters traveling around the country — and coming to Suffolk’s Peanut Fest in October — poses with Mr. Peanut in front of the Planters Peanuts Nutmobile.

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Same Great nuts, new fast processes Planters facility continues a 100-year tradition

By Tracy Agnew News Editor

The scent of peanuts often pervades the air in downtown Suffolk, but it is noticeably absent inside the administrative offices of the Planters Peanuts factory on Culloden Street.

However, one step inside the production area and it comes back stronger than ever.

The plant produces peanuts, other nuts, nut mixes, trail mixes and the company’s NUTrition products in cans, bags and singleserving packs.

Peanuts are delivered to the plant in the raw, unshelled form. They are first blanched to remove the skin, and machines shake the skins off and suck them away from the nuts.

They then go through the cooking process.

“They’re still oil-roasted like they were a hundred years ago,” plant manager Dan Huss said.

Raw and cooked nuts are strictly separated in the factory, which measures about 310,000 square feet. Additional protective gear is required for those entering the raw nuts area from the cooked nuts area.

After the nuts are roasted, they either are

www.suffolknewsherald.com packaged by themselves — still warm enough the heat can be felt through the can — or mixed with other nuts like almonds, cashews, pecans, walnuts, pistachios and hazelnuts, dried fruit and chocolate for mixed-nut and trail mix products.

From there, “it will go out to our distribution centers,” Huss said. The plant also does a small amount of direct-tocustomer sales.

While Amedeo Obici used to roast the nuts a batch at a time when he operated a little stand in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., the factory now has a vast network of belts, tubes and chutes to blanch, roast, mix and package the nuts.

“There have been many modernizations and efficiencies,” Huss said. But the oil-roasting — and the quality — still haven’t changed.

“It’s just a great product,” he said.

“The quality of the product is probably what sets us apart.”

Another thing that’s changed is the marketing. While Obici used to market the nuts as the “nickel lunch” and used gimmicks like contest pieces in the bags of nuts, Planters these days is focusing on the nutrition of its products.

“For years it was more of a snacking product,” Huss said. “Now, we’re trying to get people to understand it is a healthy product.”

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Photos courtesy of Kraft Foods

The packaging lines at the Planters facility on Culloden Street are a virtual maze of conveyor belts, chutes, tubes and machinery. Inside the plant, employees must wear special gear to keep the product unspoiled and to keep themselves safe.

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100 Years of Planters

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Images from the Plant

Photos by Greg Isbell and R.E. SPears III

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Working together Partnerships are key to company’s success

By Tracy Agnew News Editor

Partnerships are important at Suffolk’s Planters factory.

Like all businesses, the company wouldn’t be able to do its work without partnerships that make its work possible or enhance it, plant manager Dan Huss said.

The most “nutty” partnership, of course, is with Birdsong Peanuts, which has its processing facility within sight of the Planters location. Birdsong has delivered raw, shelled peanuts to Planters for many years, Huss said.

“They work closely together

with us,” Huss said.

Birdsong and Planters are tied so closely together that Birdsong will celebrate its 100th anniversary next year, one year after Planters celebrates a century in Suffolk.

It’s no coincidence, Huss said, and neither is the fact that Planters settled in Suffolk.

When Amedeo Obici first started his nut company, he was frustrated by the problems presented by running a company in Pennsylvania when much of his product was produced here in Virginia. So he moved its processing operation to Suffolk, and Birdsong’s formation quickly followed.

Birdsong also has earned prestigious recognition out of the deal.

A few years ago, Birdsong was named Kraft Supplier of the Year — quite an honor considering the many products bearing the Kraft name and all the suppliers it takes to produce those products.

The city of Suffolk and the surrounding community are other important partnerships, Huss said.

The city has been instrumental in rehabilitating the area around the Culloden Street factory, he said.

“We’ve worked with them to buy some of the property here,” Huss added.

The city also assisted with the plant’s current location and bought its old location, where

the Health and Human Services building now stands.

The company pumps a considerable amount of cash into the local economy — the 1994 construction of its Culloden Street plant cost $35 million, and the company pays about $36 million annually in salary and benefits for its 350 or so employees, as well as taxes and local goods and services.

Planters’ partnership with the community goes both ways. The company supports many projects and organizations in the city and will add to that this year, when employees help restore the Tynes Street Park playground to commemorate the 100th anniversary.

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Tracy Agnew/Suffolk News-Herald

Nearby Birdsong Peanuts has a history that reflects a close relationship with Planters, almost from the time Amedeo Obici moved his operation from Pennsylvania and opened the doors at Planters in Suffolk in 1913. In fact, Birdsong opened for business just one year later.

Among the local organizations supported through time, money and product donations are the Virginia Federation of Food Banks, the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia, United Way, American Diabetes Association, Cancer Survivor Day, Alzheimer’s Walk, the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree, the Suffolk chapter of the American Red Cross and more.

But perhaps the most important partnership is with the plant’s employees, illustrated by the fact that many employees have been there dozens of years and there are many multi-generation employees.

“You’ll find there’s several generations of people that work here,” Huss said. “They have a tremendous amount of pride in this brand.”

The work environment plays a big role in employee satisfaction, Huss added.

“We’re probably most proud of the environment we’ve been able to provide here,” Huss said. “They get education and training to know how they should work every day so they can go home safely. The employees understand that, and they feel like they’re a part of that team. They love to come to work, because they feel like they’re making an impact.”

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100 Years of Planters

‘A proud ’moment’

Plant manager excited to be a part of history

By Tracy Agnew News Editor

Dan Huss is a typical Harley-riding, steak-grilling guy, but most people who are just meeting him probably wouldn’t pin him for the manager of the Planters Peanuts factory in Suffolk.

Huss came to Suffolk in April 2001 from another Planters facility in Arkansas. He immediately fell in love with the community, he said.

“I really love the brand and the people here,” he said.

“It’s just a great area. It was easy to come in and just be part of it.”

Huss said he and his wife, Nancy, who works at the Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters, have made many close friends in the dozen years they have lived here.

They built a house in the Western Branch area and made a particular effort to stay so that their sons, Jason and Austin, could get through high school in the same

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100 Years of Planters

place. Jason recently graduated from Old Dominion University, and Austin is beginning classes at Tidewater Community College.

Besides spending time with his family, Huss enjoys riding his HarleyDavidson, a pastime his wife recently has begun partaking in more.

“She rides with me a lot,” Huss said. He has been to Bike Week in Daytona, Fla., to socialize with fellow hog enthusiasts.

He also likes food — and not just peanuts.

“I love to cook,” he said, adding he breaks out the barbecue just about every weekend. “Saturday is steak night.”

Huss said he is excited to be plant manager at such a momentous time in the plant’s history.

“For me, it’s a really important occurrence,” he said. “It’s the anniversary of a business that’s been in this community for a long time. It’s such a proud moment.”

Huss said the relationship between the plant and the community has been beneficial for both sides.

“It’s been a great relationship between the two,” he said.

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100 Years of Planters

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The Hog Pen

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Brad Whiteford, Owner • Phone: 538-1400