Kraft Heinz's Planters facility in Fort Smith, Ark.
Even as a Kraft Foods plant, the Fort Smith, Ark., Planters facility worked to exceed Kraft's corporate environmental goals. With Kraft and H.J. Heinz Co. merged, the plant looks destined to be a star in the combined company's sustainability efforts.
The 409,000-sq.-ft. Fort Smith facility is the only Planters facility to perform dry roasting, the process Planters invented 50 or so years ago. It processes only peanuts and tree nuts. Nuts are brought in, coated in a drum with spices or brine, then roasted in an oven before finding their way to Planters packages for retail, club stores, vending and even the new Oscar Mayer P3 product (portable protein pack).
Tasteful Selections, a potato processor in Arvin, Calif.
In 2010, CSS Farms and RPE Inc. united in a partnership to form Tasteful Selections. The baby potatoes fill a niche market for retail and food service customers.
Tasteful Selections’ first packing facility was leased in Bakersfield, Calif. When annual sales started growing by double digits, it became apparent the company needed a much larger facility of its own. So in 2013, Tasteful Selections broke ground on a 200,000-sq.-ft. building in Arvin, Calif.