Is Jackson's Food Company one of Milwaukee's Best-Kept Manufacturing Secrets?
CEO James Marino speaks to the growth story hiding in plain sight.
Quick Bio:
James Marino is President and CEO of Jackson’s Food Company, the Muskego-based maker of avocado-oil snacks.
James is born-and-raised a Milwaukeean and is a Marquette High grad.
Connect with him on LinkedIn.
Quick Summary:
Jackson’s has quietly scaled its capacity 20X in just a few years. The reason why comes down to one unusual thing about their factory that most snack companies never get to start with.
CEO James Marino walks through how a rare autoimmune diagnosis, a Shark Tank investment, and a shuttered brand all led to the “2.0” company making waves out of SE Wisconsin today.
There’s a reason nobody touches the product from the cutting table to the end of the line and it says something bigger about where Milwaukee’s manufacturing talent fits into the future of food.
Sometimes these interviews make me hungry.
Particularly when they’re focused on a delicious snack company.
Anyway, back to why you’re here.
I recorded this conversation, my interview with James, earlier this year. Like February early. It wasn’t for lack of interest that caused the delay in publishing. It was thinking a lot about how this particular conversation fit into the editorial flow here on Substack.
For some reason, I felt it needed it’s own time and space to be published. Like after a holiday or some kind of break in my writing. Because the Jackson’s story is special.
It all started in the home of Megan and Scott Reamer as a way to help their son, Jackson, who had a rare autoimmune disorder.
They found that the way they made snacks for Jackson, and the ingredients they used, could ease Jackson’s symptoms.
But it didn’t stop there. When friends and family got their hands on what Megan and Scott were making, they encouraged the couple to take the snacks to market!
On the shelves of Whole Foods. On the Shark Tank show. Boom. They suddenly had a real, growing company.
But in 2019, they shut down and essentially started from zero in 2020.
Technology enabled Jackson’s 2.0 to get off the ground.
Growing the way Jackson’s is growing to, of course, takes some good fortune and even better timing. Even more, it requires a great product produced with the perfect manufacturing setup.
When James and team were re-launching the company, they put all of the above together to ensure they could make the best tasting snacks in the aisle. They looked to Chicago for what happened to be the exact equipment they needed and moved everything to Muskego.
Using 50,000 square feet for production and warehousing soon became 130,000 square feet just for production with an additional warehouse / shipping facility in Oak Creek.
And they’re just getting started.
How exactly did they get this all done? Listen below and find out!
Listen to my entire conversation with James here or on Spotify.