The Emporia Gazette

May 28, 2012

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Jerry Moran, U.S. Representative for Kansas’ first district, stopped in Emporia Tuesday morning to take a tour of the operations at Dolly Madison.

The tour was given by Dan Yust, bakery unit controller, and human resources manager Rayna Bush, and included Moran, Mayor Bob Agler, City Commissioner Jim Kessler, and City Manager Matt Zimmerman.

Since 2004, Interstate Bakeries Corporation, the company of which Dolly Madison is a part, has been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and hopes to get out of it early next year, according to Yust.

The Emporia plant employs 619 people, Bush said, and has been good at bringing area natives back to Emporia. “The plant here has allowed several individuals to come back home,” she said. “We’d moved away to pursue opportunities elsewhere. Dan Yust is one, Ron Wilson, our south-central director of manufacturing, myself, along with numerous production employees.” Bush is originally from Olpe, she said. She went to work for AOL Time Warner before coming back to Emporia. She has been at Dolly Madison for two years.

“We have 55 managers and supervisors in the plant,” Bush said, “69 transport drivers that average over $50,000 per year salary, 423 production workers, and their average rate of pay is $15.66 per hour, 38 engineers whose average rate of pay is $21 per hour, and 32 clerical workers that handle payroll for four different locations. ...”

Moran asked when Interstate bakeries became involved with Dolly Madison.

“Interstate Bakeries is a combination of the old Dolly Madison bakery system and the old Hostess/Wonder system,” Yust said. “They merged in 1995 and developed into Interstate Bakeries.”

“And their stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange?” Moran asked.

“We’re in Chapter 11 right now,” Yust said. “We filed Chapter 11 in September of 2004. We have not emerged yet, although there is a plan in place now that looks like we could emerge by, I would say, early next year — a January or February time frame. The plan we’ve got includes financing from a private enterprise, a private group of investors who are very interested in acquiring ownership of the company. All the unions have agreed to the plan.”

“So you’re optimistic?” Moran asked. “Even in today’s financial circumstances?”

“We’re optimistic,” Yust said. “... We had to use DIP financing, what’s called Debtor In Possession financing, since we’re in Chapter 11, and it has posed some problems for the company acquiring financing with the current banking situation. In fact, a couple of the banks that used to loan us money aren’t in business anymore. ... So they’ve had to shop around for that financing because the banking crisis has caused a problem.”

“The future of Emporia, at least what I’m hearing, is good,” Moran said.

“It’s good,” Yust said. He explained that the Emporia plant is one of only three high-speed cake bakeries in the country, with the other two in Georgia and Indiana. “... We run two and a half to three million pounds of cake products a week at this facility. ... We are the major cake producer in the company.”

Commissioner Kessler asked whether there was any talk about expansion.

“There is a possibility,” Yust said. “We’ve been talking about it. We recently expanded the doughnut hole line. (Ron Wilson) has been talking about possibly bringing other items from other bakeries into here.”

“... One thing that Emporia has going for it is the very low attrition here,” Bush said. “... The majority of the employees that we hire are steady, and a lot of them are now retiring from IBC.”

“Emporia is a good place to live,” Yust said.

Moran said that he liked the fact that Emporia can give locals an opportunity to come back home.

Bush explained that she works with several people she went to high school with, and that their lives parallel hers: after high school they found jobs in other, bigger cities. “Slowly all of us are coming back home because it is a great place to raise your children,” she said.

After the tour, Moran stopped to make a few comments.

“You know, my interest, one of the things I heard today, is that this has been a way that a number of people that grew up in the Emporia area have been able to return home,” he said. “And to me, that’s a significant challenge in Kansas, especially in our rural communities. And so our ability to have a business like this that employs significant numbers of people with high wages and significant skills and technological abilities, that’s a great development for places in Kansas, and Emporia has had a number of success stories.

“I was particularly interested in Dolly Madison because of the bankruptcy. I wanted to know what the future held and how I could be of help, because the last thing we want to have happen in Emporia is that this place not be here.”