Gourmet peanut butter company plans opening
BNUTTY will bring about 30 jobs to the city
Merrillville gourmet peanut butter company bNUTTY is taking its multiple lines of nutty goodness — and about 30 new jobs — to Portage later this year, said the company’s founder.
“We’ve been just looking all over the area trying to figure out what areas can help us to grow and what areas need business,” said Joy Thompkins, who founded bNUTTY four years ago following successful fundraisers using her own peanut butter recipes. “Portage seems to be the best fit for both of those.”
The Portage City Council recently blessed the move, throwing in tax abatements for bNUTTY to move its entire operation from its 2,500-square-foot facility to an existing 16,000square-foot site at 6370 AmeriPlex Frive at the AmeriPlex at the Port, a popular complex owned by Holladay Properties.
The site allows for easy access to highways that can accommodate trucks taking raw materials to the business and taking thousands of cases of peanut butter back out to customers, Thompkins said.
The move into the new location, along with hiring 30 new employees to meet the products’ growing demand, should be completed by year’s end, Thompkins said.
“This is a fabulous busi- ness,” said Andy Maletta, Portage’s economic development director. “It’s a fastgrowing, young company.”
The small company’s ever-expanding line runs from flavors like Peacefully Plain peanut butter to Pumpkin Spice and Joyful Cranberries, and they’re working on a line of holi- day-themed flavors,
Thompkins said.
The company’s gift baskets also have become popular items, said Carol Podolak, who operates the business with Thompkins.
At the company’s small, spotless manufacturing site, a handful of workers run stainless steel grinders, which can work through thousands of pounds of peanuts an hour, and labeling machines and assembly lines, all made in or near Northwest Indiana, Thompkins said.
What began as family and friends packing peanut butter into jars has exploded into contracts with all 20 Strack & Van Til grocery stores and shelf space in Bed Bath & Beyond stores and a number of smaller mom-and-pop businesses.
Recently, after a test at 100 Walmart stores, the retail giant placed orders for bNUTTY products in 1,600 stores nationwide, Podolak said.
“(Walmart) wanted to see how our peanut butter sold on a national level, so we were hopeful” during the test, Podolak said. “We crossed our fingers, and they said, ‘Wow! Things are going great, and we’d like to add you a few more stores.’
“They’re idea of a few more stores was very different from our idea.”
The new, much larger Portage facility has more space than the company needs, but it will allow for growth, said Thompkins, who also initially made peanut butter to raise money for a high school at Forest Ridge Academy, where she is a board member.
“I’m still pinching myself,” she said. “I really thought we were just doing some for the kids on the soccer team and maybe just doing something for the school itself.”