This fast-growing KC company helps put the bacon in your refrigerator

You might not know the name Multivac Inc., but it’s likely the company has made its way into your kitchen.

“There’s something that’s going to be produced and packed on a Multivac (machine) that’s going to be in your refrigerator,” said Jim Campbell, president and chief executive officer.

Be it your ground beef, sliced cheese or bacon, there’s a good likelihood it was packaged on a Multivac machine. The growing Kansas City, North, company manufactures packaging machines that are used in the food, health and industrial goods industries.

Multivac, which is a daughter company of Multivac Group of Wolfertschwenden, Germany, originally sold its packaging machines through Koch Supplies in the 1970s.

In 1987, the German parent company founded Multivac Inc. in Kansas City to handle its U.S. operations. It moved into its headquarters at 11021 N. Pomona Ave. in 1991.

The city’s stockyards and central location are probably why the company chose Kansas City. But the local workforce, which Campbell said is phenomenal, is what has kept the company here.

“We have many, many people that came to us from Koch Supplies and have 30-plus years of experience with Multivac,” Campbell said. “We kind of recognize and celebrate that longevity of service because it gives a huge amount of consistency to customers.”

Campbell, who was with Multivac UK for 21 years before coming to Kansas City four years ago, values the Midwest work mentality.

“The thing I’ve seen most of all at Kansas City is the workforce,” Campbell said. “This kind of ability to really just knuckle down and do the job. They get through a huge amount of work — a can-do mentality.”

The company will have 334 employees by the end of the year, of which about 200 will be based in Kansas City. The company had sales revenues of about $175 million last year and hopes to break $200 million this year.

Multivac has workers in nearly every state and has grown its employment by just more than 50 percent over the past four years. Because the company is a sales and service organization, it has workers geographically based so that they are close to the customers.

In the past three years, Multivac has opened regional offices in Tustin, Calif.; Whippany, N.J., and Charlotte, N.C.

The company has also been expanding its manufacturing operations, with a $10 million investment in 2012 and another $6.9 million last year.

Multivac plans to spend $8 million this year in remodeling and adding innovation centers for customers to design and test future packaging in private.

“The next new packaging for a major brand is being developed right here in Kansas City in our facilities,” Campbell said. “What we are working on today, you’ll see in the store maybe in early 2018 in terms of new pack ideas and concepts.”

The company offers a variety of sizes of machines. The smallest can be found in the kitchens of local restaurants; the largest are used by centralized food packing operations.

“We protect and add value to products,” Campbell said. “ Be they food or be they medical, we are providing protection.”

That protection is helping to reduce the food waste so rampant in the U.S.

“We are adding shelf-life to food in particular, which is reducing food waste, reducing trips to the supermarket because the food will last longer and allowing distribution across much greater distances,” he said.

That allows companies to distribute their products nationally and internationally.

Between 70 to 80 percent of the company’s business is food-packing-related. The remainder is medical packing such as hypodermic needs, surgical kits and other sterilized medical products.

Vacuum packing has been around for a while, but Multivac is tapping new and expanding markets, such as large, centrally located pre-pack operations as well as niche suppliers who provide artisan products. The company’s products are even showing up in the kitchens of local restaurants that are using the French sous-vide method of cooking.

This story was originally published January 20, 2017 at 7:00 AM with the headline "This fast-growing KC company helps put the bacon in your refrigerator."