Four years ago, Calbee purchased a manufacturing facility in Madera, Calif., where it makes many of its US-based private label products. The facility is organic, gluten-free, non-GMO, whole grain, and peanut-free certified.
“What's unique about our facility is that it can be a one-stop shop. If you are looking for tortilla, potato, or popcorn, extrusion, taco shells, [or] tostada bowls, we have the capacity and the capability to produce all those items."
At the PLMA show, Calbee shared its private-label taco and tostada bowl capabilities with the Rio Rancho concept line, Bateman said. With its Madera facility, Calbee is also meeting the growing demand for gluten-free products.
"We know that there's a great opportunity to continue to find ways to produce products without gluten in them. ... The grain-free push is also something that we are going to continue to push as well. Gluten-free, we are married to that, and we are going to make sure to provide that capacity."
Calbee is also leveraging its name brand portfolio, which includes Harvest Snaps, Shrimp Chips, Jagabee, and others, to forge better relationship with retailers, Bateman explained.
"Our capacity to do private brands is forging that better relationship with the retailers, where they can say, 'Hey, we are buying a lot of branded items from you, we'd also would like you to start making x, y, and z for us.' We have that capacity, so we can combine those. We can make it more efficient for the retailers, so they can buy brands and private brands at the same time."
