Who knew that crustless PB&J sandwiches have become a $200 million business for J.M. Smucker Co. of Orrville?
The food company revealed Tuesday that to keep up with demand, it is building a second plant — outside Denver — devoted to the production of the round thaw-and-eat sandwiches called Uncrustables.
The Longmont, Col., plant initially will employ 250 workers and could eventually employ as many as 500.
“Demand for the product has been quite dramatic,” with consumers gobbling up the up to 2 million produced daily at the existing Uncrustables plant in Scottsville, Ky., said Maribeth Burns, Smucker vice president of corporate communications.
“We’ll have the opportunity to make up to 3 million Uncrustables a day,” with the addition of the 200,000-square-foot plant, she said.
Smucker began offering the frozen round sandwiches in the late 1990s, after buying the Incredible Uncrustables brand from North Dakota entrepreneurs David Geske and Len Kretchman.
By 2000, Smucker’s annual sales of Uncrustables totaled about $10 million. Today, the product line is about a $200 million business and ended fiscal 2016 with its 17th consecutive quarter of double-digit growth in U.S. retail sales.
Burns said Smucker chose the Denver area for the plant because of its proximity to Western U.S. markets and suppliers of some ingredients that go into Uncrustables.
Construction of the first phase of the facility (200,000 square feet) will start in spring 2017. Production is expected to begin in calendar year 2019, Smucker said. A total of 250 employees would work in the first phase. Construction is contingent on the approval of incentives and finalizing the purchase of the property where the plant will be built, Smucker said.
A possible second phase would also total about 200,000 square feet and employ another 250 workers. There was no timetable available Tuesday for construction of phase two; its construction is contingent on Uncrustable demand.
The first phase is expected to cost up to $200 million.
“The Smucker’s Uncrustables brand is one of our fastest-growing brands, as consumers seek nutritious snacks and meal solutions for the whole family,” said Smucker President and CEO Mark Smucker in a news release.
He noted the new facility will be Smucker’s first plant in Colorado.
Smucker Uncrustables come in a variety of flavors.
According to a 2011 Los Angles Times article, entrepreneurs Geske and Kretchman came up with their Incredible Uncrustables business after they were hanging out together one day and their kids wanted PB&J sandwiches folded over and without crusts. The two men’s wives suggested they make crustless sandwiches.
By the end of 1998, Geske’s and Kretchman’s employees in Fargo, N.D., were making 35,000 Incredible Uncrustables sandwiches a day for schoolchildren in eight states, according to the Los Angles Times.
The jelly that goes into Uncrustables is made at a Smucker plant in Memphis, Tenn.
Smucker employs about 1,200 people in Orrville, where in addition to its corporate offices it has its Heritage fruit spread plant, where jams, jellies and preserves are made.
Katie Byard can be reached at 330-996-3781 or kbyard@thebeaconjournal.com. You can follow her @KatieByardABJ on Twitter.