Tour tempts sweet tooths

Business remains sweet at Russell Stover Candies, Iola and Allen County leaders were told Thursday.
Iola City Council and Allen County Commission members toured the Russell Stover Candies plant as part of an ongoing effort by city officials to learn more about the area’s major industrial players.
Plant manager Darrell Weick briefed the visitors on the plant’s status, including how the company’s recent acquisition by the Swiss candy-maker Lindt affects Iola’s employees.
The Iola plant has 365 employees, Weick said, and focuses solely on individual molded pieces.
Most of the candy made here is seasonal, such as Halloween, Christmas, Valentine’s Day or Easter candies, Weick said.
As such, Russell Stover is in the midst of its busy season and will be until February.
Russell Stover tends to work “one season or more ahead,” Weick explained. That is, while customers are looking at Christmas candy now, the Iola plant is in the midst of producing its Valentine’s Day and Easter pieces.
“We’ll work even further ahead during our slow season,” Weick said.
The Iola plant’s biggest challenge is meeting demand.
Employees typically work four 10-hour days a week. During the busy season they may be called to work six days a week, or longer, which in turn is attributable to the plant’s 40-percent turnover rate.
“We have a lot of parents after a while who find themselves spending less time with their families,” Weick said, because of the heavy workload.
As it stands, Russell Stover-Iola would hire an additional 20 employees today if they were available.
Of the plant’s 365 employees, roughly half have been here five years or longer. Half of those have been here at least 10 years, Weick said.
“We have a loyal base,” he said. “Others come and go.”
As an aside, despite being within a stone’s throw of the Iola Walmart Supercenter — Walmart is one of Russell Stover’s biggest customers — none of the candy produced here goes straight to the Iola Walmart.
The Iola plant has the largest, coldest freezer in southeast Kansas — 75,000 square feet — “but we can’t freeze it all,” Weick said.
Much of the candy produced in Iola instead goes to warehouses, where it is shipped to retailers across the country, Weick said. Other large-scale customers include CVS and Dollar General.

THE ACQUISITION by Lindt meant more business for the Iola plant, but not necessarily any more employees, Weick said.
“We have nowhere to put the equipment,” he said, if the company were to expand.
The Iola plant produces several varieties of the Ghirardelli pieces for Lindt.
Russell Stover still has four plants in the United States: In Iola, Abilene, Corsicana, Texas, and Montrose, Colo.

WEICK led the visitors from one end of the plant to the other, from where ingredients are stored in bulk containers — chocolate in 10-pound bars — through the production process, from where the ingredients are mixed; conveyors in which the molded pieces are created; and finally to the packaging, storage and shipping areas.

BECAUSE BOTH governing bodies were a part of the tour, Thursday counted as special meetings for both the city councilmen and county commissioners. The Iola City Council meets again tonight for its regularly scheduled 6 o’clock meeting at the New Community Building at Riverside Park.
Members are expected to vote on proposed 5 percent increases in water and wastewater rates.
Tonight’s meeting is open to the public.