Only the names have changed

Economic Development 2011

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Advance Pierre Foods Enid facilities will continue to play a crucial role in the business’ future, said Mark Allen, president of food service. Last year’s merger of Advance Food Co., Advance Brands and Pierre Foods to form Advance Pierre Foods will lead to further growth of the company, officials say. The company is hoping to make additional mergers this summer. With some 1,800 employees, Advance Pierre Foods remains the largest employer in Enid. (Photo provided)
Advance Pierre Foods Enid facilities will continue to play a crucial role in the business’ future, said Mark Allen, president of food service. Last year’s merger of Advance Food Co., Advance Brands and Pierre Foods to form Advance Pierre Foods will lead to further growth of the company, officials say. The company is hoping to make additional mergers this summer. With some 1,800 employees, Advance Pierre Foods remains the largest employer in Enid. (Photo provided)

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February 13, 2011

Only the names have changed

Growth, a positive future the only outcomes Advance Pierre officials expect from merger

By Cass Rains, Staff Writer Enid News and Eagle The Enid News and Eagle Sun Feb 13, 2011, 10:13 PM CST

ENID — Last year’s merger of Advance Food Co., Advance Brands and Pierre Foods to form Advance Pierre Foods will lead to further growth of the company, officials say.

“Everything is positive right now,” said Mark Allen, president of food service for Advance Pierre Foods. “Right now, we are still working on the integration of all three companies. We’re still integrating cultures, procedures and policies of three companies.”

Advance Pierre Foods will offer a full line of packaged sandwiches, fully cooked chicken and beef products, Philly-style steak, breaded beef, pork, and poultry and bakery products.

Headquartered in Cincinnati, Advance Pierre Foods will operate protein processing facilities in Oklahoma, Ohio and Iowa, as well as sandwich assembly facilities in North Carolina, Ohio and South Carolina. The company will also operate bakeries in North Carolina and Oklahoma.

The merger came about after Advance Food Company saw its steady growth begin to slow.

“Since about 1993 we experienced a very significant growth in our company,” Allen said. “Our company was able to achieve this type of growth because the type of employees and work ethic we have.”

Allen credits the employees’ pride in the company for its success prior to the merger.

“In 2007, for the products we make we could see we reached a little bit of a plateau,” he said. “In 2009 we started exploring acquisition opportunities.”

He said the company’s growth was “almost the same” between 2008 and 2010 and did not compare to growth the company had experienced throughout the past two decades.

Allen said the company acquired an Iowa company named Whitaker Foods, but inclusion of the company did not spur growth as much as it was thought it would because of Advance Food Co.’s size.

“I don’t think we really realized how big our company was ...,” Allen said. “We were going to have to do something more substantial in nature.”

Allen said it was in the best interest of the employees to begin thinking about making a larger acquisition.

“We started pursuing the strategy of being in an equity partnership, and we interviewed many firms,” Allen said. “It just so happened one of the equity firms owned Pierre Foods. Oaktree brought us a two for one.”

Oaktree Capital Management, L.P., owns Pierre Foods, which manufactures foods similar to Advance but took their products through different distribution channels.

“We decided to proceed with a merger because we had a lot of common practices and a lot of common products,” Allen said. “In the merger, Advance Food acquired some 500 new Pierre customers and Pierre gained some 1,500 Advance accounts.”

With the merger and combination of customer bases, Advance Pierre Foods now covers most of the United States.

“It is a lot easier to sell an existing customer more products than to cultivate a new customer,” Allen said. “We’re starting to have some of those discussions now with customers, and we’re seeing some real positive results from those conversations.”

He said the merger, and partnerships built through it, should bring back growth the company has come to expect.

“The intent of the new company is to bring on more mid-sized companies to grow the company to $2 billion annual sales,” Allen said. “We fully expect that we will make several acquisitions in the next few years. With the capital Oaktree has we can look at a lot of acquisitions we might not have viewed as possible.”

With some 1,800 employees, Advance Pierre Foods remains the largest employer in Enid.

Allen said the company will continue to rely on its employees to continue its success.

“The attitude and the drive our employees have is always to grow and have more opportunities and challenges,” he said. “There hasn’t been any layoffs, there hasn’t been any change.”

Allen said the company could begin another acquisition as early as this summer.

“We’ll complete this integration this summer and then will begin another acquisition,” Allen said. “Enid will be an anchor of this company. Half the employees are here, half of the facilities are here.”

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Economic Development 2011

Economic Development 2011
One of the attributes of living in Enid and Northwest Oklahoma is the abundant pride residents have in its people, land and businesses. The 2011 News & Eagle Progress edition highlights these areas and pays tribute to all of those who make our region shine 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

February 19, 2011 1 Photo
Divine inspiration
Inspire Greater Enid is an organization that has a mission to bring together professionals in marketing and communications fields and provide them resources, information, training and professional marketing.

February 13, 2011 1 Photo
‘Ambassadors’ help Enid shine
“We have become incredibly successful at marketing. We are a for-profit company but virtually everything we do has a spin-off for the local economy. We are trying to get good, fun events. We are trying to get Enid to be fun and a good destination for fun.” — Frank Baker, director of Eagle Marketing

February 13, 2011 1 Photo
Enid 1st seeks stories that it can brag about
Enid Regional Development Alliance, along with the help of the Enid News & Eagle, has launched an Enid 1st Campaign with the goal of drawing information from individuals, companies or organizations about what Enid is best at, has the most of, is first at doing or has the only of.

February 13, 2011 1 Photo
Out on their own: With a little help from the community
In his third year as executive director, ERDA executive director Brent Kisling said the development alliance has been successful in three areas: “Working with entrepreneurs, working with present businesses and soliciting new businesses.”

February 13, 2011 1 Photo
Western Enterprises is Enid’s and the area’s master blaster
The manufacturing of fireworks is considered an art form, which is kind of strange for something that blows up.” — Jim Burnett, owner of Western Enterprises at Carrier

February 13, 2011 2 Photos
What’s new at the mall
Kelly Goodwin, general manager, said they are working to entice several businesses into the mall.

February 13, 2011 3 Photos
Social networking offers a better way to promote the city of Enid
Today’s social networking sites make it much easier for Enid to market itself and find new investment opportunities, said Brent Kisling, executive director of Enid Regional Development Alliance.

February 13, 2011 3 Photos
No secrets here
Marcy Jarrett, director of ECVB, said the No. 1 goal is to find what people want in Enid and promote that directly.

February 13, 2011 1 Photo
Turning the corner
“Marketing Enid to national retail people is a tenacious and lengthy process and we are in the middle of it. We’re ahead of where we thought we would be, there is still a lot of distressed commercial real estate, and we still may not have seen the end of foreclosures, but we’ve turned the corner." — Rickey Hayes, retail consultant

February 13, 2011 1 Photo
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Only the names have changed

Growth, a positive future the only outcomes Advance Pierre officials expect from merger

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