Since 1987, Café Valley has produced muffins, bundt cakes, ring cakes, loaf cakes, danishes, turnovers, croissants, and Café Bites for customers throughout the United States and across the world. Demand for their products outgrew their state-of-the-art, Phoenix, AZ, production, and led to the construction of their Marion, Indiana facility in 2014. The Marion plant was built in an effort to better support their midwest and east coast customers. Roughly 500 people are employed at the Marion plant which has three major production lines that produce croissants, cakes, and muffins for a variety of customers including convenience stores, club stores, and food service operations.
General Manager, Paul Dash, shared the most rewarding part of doing business in Marion. “We really do have amazing people here. Our Leadership Team is rich with experience from many other organizations, and they are able to freely offer up ideas and try them out here. We have a culture where everyone has a voice which is helping us grow our culture as a team. We work to engage our employees in as many events and discussions as possible. Most of our people want Café Valley to be successful, and that makes life so much easier.”
Dash also believes the future is bright for Café Valley’s Marion facility. He said, “Swander Pace purchased our company in the summer of 2019 and plans to grow our business over the next several years. We have room to add more high-capacity production lines, and are building a strong team to support that growth. We also plan to add automation to our production lines which will enable us to be more resilient and productive, especially during difficult times like these. Part of what we bring to the community is an opportunity for personal growth. We train people to become Leads and Operators, and then potentially move into Management roles. We have promoted about 10 people from hourly ranks into Supervisor ranks in the last few years, and that make us all proud. We also train people in the basics of food safety and quality. Employees can also earn promotions within these specialty areas as well.”
Learn more about Café Valley through their website (www.cafevalley.com) or by stopping by their bakery outlet at 3701 S. Adams Street.
Submitted by:
Kylie Jackson, President/CEO
Marion-Grant County Chamber of Commerce