INSIDE
SPoRTS Torres playing for Puerto Rico this summer
PAGE 11
NEWS Boughton Road Radio Shake robbed at gunpoint
PAGE 4
Your Community, Your News
bolingbrookbugle.com
JULY 31, 2014
Vol. 8 No. 3
BUSINeSS
BUSINeSS
Bolingbrook Chick-fil-A gets new owner
SEE THE FULL STORY PAGE 3
Mike Wagner is one of the youngest franchise owners BY LaUra KaTaUSKaS staff reporter
katauskas@buglenewspapers.com @lkatauskas
The West Liberty Foods story began in 1996, yet it is the continuation of over 70 years of unique history and unprecedented growth. In 1943, Louis H. Rich established the Rock Island Produce Company from Rock Island, Illinois, to West Liberty, Iowa. By 1946, the plant was converted to a chicken slaughter facility. Martin and Norman Rich, both sons of Louis, decided the company would undergo a massive revamp, and thus in 1949 the company began focusing on turkey products. In 1960, The Rock Island Produce Company changed their name to Louis Rich Foods, Inc. and undertook the first expansion of the West Liberty facility.19 years later, in 1979, the company was acquired by Oscar Mayer, General Foods, and Phillip Morris. The facility ran until 1996, when Oscar Mayer, a division of Phillip Morris, announced they were closing the West Liberty
facility effective December 31.At that time, the Iowa Turkey Growers Cooperative (ITGC) was formed by 47 Iowa-based turkey growers. ITGC purchased the West Liberty, Iowa facility and began to run their business as West Liberty Foods. In 1997, the first turkeys were processed by the Cooperative. Three years later, in 2000, West Liberty Foods purchased a facility in Sigourney, Iowa. That facility was sold in late 2012. In 2002, the USDA-inspected Research and Development Center was opened in West Liberty, Iowa. One year later, the Mount Pleasant, Iowa facility was opened and then expanded in 2004. By 2005, West Liberty Foods opened a state-ofthe-art Quality Assurance Laboratory in West Liberty. Only four years after the opening of the Mount Pleasant, Iowa plant, West Liberty Foods expanded towards the west by building and opening a new facility in Tremonton, Utah in 2007.
For Mike Wagner, the 26-year-old franchise owner of the Bolingbrook Chick-fil-A, success was inevitable. Double major. His own business while still in college. Like a scene out of Risky Business, this kid was ready. But minus the risky part—he was smart enough to ditch the lucrative DJ business that had him earning a payroll those far older would be envious of. He found a niche in college—students like to throw a party and they needed music. He supplied it and soon later had his own staff running parties like a pro. But academic in nature, he realized the late hours wouldn’t be conducive later in life. Wagner started working for Chick-fil-A in 2010 shortly after graduating Loyola University Chicago with a double major in entrepreneurship and business marketing, which he accomplished in just four years. Wagner shrugged at the minimum wage and soldiered on, placing experience as potential >> see CHICK-fIL-a | page 23