Business ‘N Bagels showcases Palo Popcorn

Forty-six local business people were treated to the success story of a growing local popcorn company, during a Sheboygan Falls Chamber-Main Street Business ’N Bagels program Wednesday, Feb. 3, at Final Approach Steakhouse in Sheboygan Falls.

Dave Berth of Palo Popcorn served as the program’s featured guest.

The successful restaurateur spoke about learning the food production trade, expanding into a new production facility in Sheboygan Falls and building a national presence for Palo Popcorn.

With his wife Cindy, Berth owned and operated a Dairy Queen in Chilton for 25 years.

In October 2007, he switched gears, joining his father-in-law Hank Schuette to purchase Parkview Restaurant in Sheboygan Falls.

Just one month later, another new business venture came into the picture.

“If you know anything about Hank, you know he was a real go-getter,” Berth said. “When he put his mind to something, nothing could stand in his way.

“He had always wanted to own a popcorn company,” he said. “In November 2007, I remember he asked me what I thought about running a popcorn business. He had one in mind and asked me to come and check it out with him.”

Two weeks after visiting the Palo Popcorn headquarters at 1509 Main Ave. in Sheboygan, Schuette purchased the company from Jack and Carol Dahler.

“Palo Popcorn was a small company that Pat and Larry Ott started in Sheboygan in 1963,” Berth said. “It had a real good history and a great product that Hank thought could be built into something big. His goal was to make it into a regional company.”

Schuette, who owned the Plymouth Dairy Queen for 30 years, died in April 2008, before he had a chance to turn those dreams into reality.

“That was around the time the economy started to take a big dive, but we have been determined not to let that get the best of us,” Berth said. “Hank’s passing gave us even more drive to make Palo Popcorn into a success.”

Finding a new production facility was vital in helping the Berths push the company to the next level.

“When we purchased the company, it had one employee and basically operated out of one small room,” Berth said. “A bigger facility was a must for us.”

In August 2008, the Berths purchased a portion of the Kolar Sheet Metal Inc. building, located at 903 Forest Ave. in Sheboygan Falls.

“The building had served as a machine shop, so we had plenty of work to do to make it into a popcorn production plant,” Berth said. “We put up several walls and did some reconfiguration to accommodate our plans for automated production.”

An automated bagging system has given the company the ability to produce 1,200 bags of popcorn per hour.

“This past year we got our vertical form, fill-and-seal bagging system completely up and running,” Berth said. “Prior to that, all of our bagging had been done by hand, which was an extremely tedious process.”

Berth credited Viking Packaging of Sheboygan Falls with giving Palo Popcorn the equipment it needed to jump-start its production capabilities.

“My background is in the food and restaurant business, not in production and manufacturing,” he said. “I spent many nights searching for bagging equipment on the Internet.

“After doing this for several months, someone asked me if I had talked with Rick Leonhard from Viking Packaging. At the time I had never heard of it, even though it is just down the street from us. The Viking Packaging staff has been a huge help in getting our automated bagging system on track.”

Other experts have provided their assistance over the past two years.

“We’ve worked with a food technologist from Memphis, Tennessee, who has spent a lot of time helping us to do things the right way,” Berth said. “Deb Gilbertson, our graphic designer, has done a lot of work in designing and developing our new bag. We are very happy with the way it has turned out.”

With the production facility now operating at full speed, Berth has been focusing on introducing Palo Popcorn to new markets.

“We’ve recently added seven sales reps in Minnesota, Nebraska, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Texas, in addition to Wisconsin,” he said. “We have been focusing on getting our product into several grocery and convenience stores throughout the country.”

Walgreens is rapidly becoming a major outlet for Palo Popcorn.

“We have gone into 25 new Walgreens stores in the past two weeks,” Berth said. “We expect to see big growth with Walgreens throughout 2010.

“We have a bit of an advantage, because we are a direct-ship company,” he said. “Because there is no middle man, we have the ability to expand faster geographically.”

Through the use of an innovative recipe and process, cheddar cheese corn has become the staple of Palo Popcorn.

“We don’t use cheese powder like most other companies do,” Berth said. “We use real cheese that is applied in a liquid state.

“That process has carried us a long way,” he said. “We have a quite a few flavors and varieties, but our cheese corn truly stands out.”

While Berth is constantly testing new flavors, developing a new product is a painstaking process.

“We are currently testing a parmesan asiago flavor and some chocolate-covered caramel corn flavors,” he said. “New products are very costly to develop, market and design bags for. If we do add something new, it is typically for limited or test run. Our standards for new flavors are pretty high.”

Berth said the company is fortunate to have a dedicated group of employees and supporters.

“We have eight employees working at our facility,” he said. “Our employees genuinely care and believe in our product. That is a big key in this business.

“We have also had quite a few ‘angels,’ as I call them, who have come along and given us assistance and direction when we’ve needed it most. You can’t go very far in any endeavor, if you aren’t surrounded by good people. We are very fortunate that we are.”

Berth praised Cindy for her daily efforts in keeping the company running at a high level of efficiency.

“Cindy is the president of the company,” he said. “She does so many things, and she does them all very well.”

Berth tries to live by his father-in-law’s words every day.

“Hank would always say how fun it is to make popcorn,” he said. “He loved what he did. I agree with him. This is fun.”

With a solid plan in place, the future looks bright for the Sheboygan Falls company.

“We are pleased with the support we’ve received locally, with Blattner’s Piggly Wiggly in Sheboygan Falls and Piggly Wiggly in Plymouth being two of the biggest ones,” Berth said. “We have a great base to build on.

“We have a good product, good people and a strategic plan in place, but we are a baby company that really hasn’t done anything yet,” he said. “Now we need to get out there, execute our plan and try to make Sheboygan Falls proud.”

Prior to Berth’s presentation, Chamber-Main Street Program Coordinator Shirl Breunig discussed upcoming promotional events and activities.

“We have a few changes in store with a couple of our events this year,” Breunig said. “Home and Hearth will be held on April 24 this year. Last year it was held a few weeks later in May.

“We have also pushed back our annual golf outing from late May to June 9th,” she said. “We’ve run into some weather issues in the past, so we are hoping for better things this year.”

Despite falling on July 4th, Breunig said Ducktona will again be held on the first Sunday in July.

“We will be having Ducktona on July 4th,” she said. “Many people have been asking about that. We re planning to take a patriotic approach, with a red, white and blue focus.”

Breunig also noted that this year’s Ladies Nite Out on Oct. 22, will have a pink theme for breast cancer awareness, while a new Chamber-Main Street event will be announced soon.

Chamber-Main Street Executive Director Nancy Vertstrate introduced new member Jim Pecquex and new members of the business community Carl Paul of Raih Tax and Bookkeeping and Mary Brasseaux of the Sharon S. Richardson Community Hospice.

She also spoke about the current state of the business community in downtown Sheboygan Falls.

“In recent months it has been great to see three new businesses open downtown,” Verstrate said. “We’ve had Dawn’s Doll Emporium and Addicted Industries open as new businesses and Bridal Boutique reopen with a new owner.

“New faces keep our Chamber-Main Street program going,” she said. “A strong sense of resiliency and spirit to succeed is what will get Sheboygan Falls through the economic downtown that has been tough on all of us.”
Sheboygan Falls
Chamber-Main Street
2010 Promotional Events
Home and Hearth Swings into Spring-Saturday, April 24
Golf outing at The Bull
Wednesday, June 9
Ducktona 500 and Car Show
Sunday, July 4
Sidewalk Sale
Wednesday, July 21
Date Nite
Thursday, Sept. 16
Moonlight Madness

Wednesday, Sept. 22
Ladies Nite Out
Friday, Oct. 22
Main Street Memories
and Holiday Parade
Saturday, Dec. 4