When Amy’s Kitchen purchased the plant in Pocatello, they made a promise to try and hire back former Heinz employees.
They officially opened in December 2014 and out of 75 total new hires, 73 were former Heinz employees. Since then, Amy’s has brought in over 380 new jobs to Pocatello and according to Susan Grelock, the senior communications manager for Amy’s Kitchen, the company is just getting started in Pocatello and are looking to grow.
“We are a trusted, 30-year old brand that has helped to pioneer the organic food industry,” Grelock said. “We are known for the extraordinary care we take to get the very best ingredients and make the most delicious food.”
It’s impossible to separate the birth of Amy’s Kitchen from the birth of Rachel and Andy Berliner’s daughter, Amy. Not only is the family business named after her, it’s in her DNA.
In 1987, while Rachel was pregnant with Amy and on bed rest, Andy went looking for ready-made meals at their natural grocery. When he couldn’t find anything organic and vegetarian that satisfied their taste buds, they decided to make their own.
They started with a pot pie. Andy and Rachel made them by hand, sold them locally and Amy’s Kitchen began right out of their home. They thought they would remain a small company simply making pot pies, but pretty soon handwritten letters of thanks started pouring in.
People wrote letters asking for other products like pizzas and soups, so Andy and Rachel went back to the kitchen. Then letters came in about the difficulty of living with food allergies, asking for gluten free and dairy free options. So, of course, the Berliners went back to the kitchen again.
“Since we’ve started, we’ve always had strong, positive growth,” Grelock said. “Today, that’s unusual in our industry, but we continue to grow. A lot of that has to do with our innovation and connection to consumers — we’ve never lost touch with our consumers and we continue to grow our product lines to support their needs.”
A lot has changed since 1987. Amy has grown up. She and her husband, Jace, play active roles in the company that shares Amy’s name. And together they’ve started a family of their own.
“We started in 1987 with a simple mission, which is still true today — to provide delicious, high quality choices for people when they are too busy to cook,” Grelock said.
Amy’s Kitchen has grown up too, going from several family members pitching in anywhere they can, to a wonderful group of employees, farmers and suppliers. But no matter how big the company grows, one thing will always remain the same — the family spirit that permeates every decision made inside of Amy’s Kitchen.
“Word of mouth has always been important to us as a brand,” Grelock said. “When people taste our food, they usually enjoy it so much they tell their friends. Today that also takes the form of social media, and we have really engaged followers on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.”
Amy’s has two kitchens, their flagship plant in California and the kitchen in Oregon. Both of those plants were at capacity and they knew they needed another facility to keep up with the fast growing demand.
“At that time, the Pocatello site came available and really saved the day for us,” Grelock said. “It was great for us that we could move right in, and it was great for the community to keep such a major plant in operation.”
Local giving committees exist at each of their sites, including Pocatello.
“They are just getting started now, reviewing good fits in the community,” Grelock said. “It’s great that so many of our employees are deeply involved in the community, and they have a strong sense of all the nonprofits supporting the Pocatello community. We also support food banks near all of our plants with ongoing food donations.”
Grelock added that customers choose Amy’s over competitors because of the unique things that they’ve managed to do, including scaling up home-style cooking methods to large scale manufacturing.
“It takes a lot more time, care, and people to make food this way, but we know it’s worth it,” Grelock said. “This care is what really makes our food so special.”
In addition to adding more jobs to the community, Grelock said the transition to Pocatello has been a smooth one.
“We had many team members from other sites come out to help get our plant up and running, so that was really helpful,” she said. “It was ideal for us to get the facility when we did, and, even better, we’ve found that the community is so supportive of us. We’re so fortunate to have found so many great employees here who are passionate about their work and committed to putting so much care into Amy’s food.”
They were up and running, making their signature mac & cheese, in just seven weeks.
“That was fantastic and really helped us to keep up with our sales orders,” Grelock said. “At Amy’s, we think of our Pocatello plant as a dream come true.”
