To be a leader, you must set the bar for your industry and redefine the way that companies succeed and grow in your field. By leading within your specific industry, you can exceed expectations and break out of the box.

That’s exactly what this year’s recipient of our Industry Leader Impact Award has done. This company is leading their field through acquisition growth and leveraging new Plex functionality to maximize information availability while reducing non-value-added transactions. They’re leading the charge in the food and beverage industry and creating new opportunities every day.

The 2022 Industry Leader Impact Award winner is Old World Spices & Seasonings, a most deserving recipient.

Old World Spices & Seasonings

Old World Spices had a unique start. As far back as 1966, John Jungk began blending spices for Pizza Hut in the basement of his Kansas City home. This sparked his passion for spice blending and he eventually turned it into his career. Old World Spices now has three generations working to blend and package custom spices, with over 100 full-time employees and twenty-four-hour production. The company also creates dry food products as well as various sauces. They have facilities across the United States and are headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas.

What Makes Old World Spices a Leader?

Old World Spices self-implemented Plex in 2015 and currently has three facilities using Plex. They are leveraging Plex functionality such as lot trace, batch management, DemandCaster, material usage variance and several other integrations to enhance the business. They are also working on leading edge warehousing ideas, which they plan to start at the end of 2022 to continue increasing efficiency with the help of Plex.

Plex is helping Old World Spices lead in the manufacturing industry because they knew that their end goal was a sea change in how their business would approach corporate ERP versus a single site ERP. With this goal in mind from the beginning, OWS was able to introduce new Plex capabilities and normalize security prior to starting implementation in new facilities. Old World Spices acquired Head Country Barbeque based in Ponca City, Oklahoma, and worked together with Control+M Solutions to validate and refresh the original Plex implementation. During this time, the internal team was focused on their go live, managing not only the software change but the organizational change as well.

Old World Spices was also able to integrate a wet manufacturing facility successfully and quickly into a company that was rich in dry rub blending expertise. The design put in place will allow the company to expand in the future and prepare for future acquisitions as well. The OWS team is well trained and prepared to make sure that any future acquisitions never disrupt business. Thanks to Plex, the work and planning is already done which will allow Old World Spices to continue growing.

The 2022 Industry Leader Impact Award

Old World Spices has leveraged Plex to make an impact on not only daily operations, but distribution as well. By introducing the ability to bring in additional companies, OWS has continued to grow with significant footprint increase. This company has proven themselves to be forward thinking, not only in their research and development but also in their ability to assist private labels with nationwide reach and high quality standards.

The team is passionate about the work that they do, making them incredible ambassadors for Plex solutions in the food and beverage industry. We’re excited for their continued growth using smart manufacturing technology. Congratulations once again to Old World Spices, and thank you to all of our Industry Leader nominees.

If you’re interested in learning more about how manufacturers in food and beverage and other industries lead with Plex, read success stories here.