2021 Progress Edition - Business

January 23 and 24, 2021

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BUSINESS NATIONWIDE INCREASE IN DISC GOLF POPULARITY KEEPS BUSINESS BOOMING AT DYNAMIC DISCS

By Zach DeLoach zach@emporia.com

When businesses across the country started to close in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Emporia resident and Dynamic Discs founder, owner and CEO Jeremy Rusco feared how it would affect his business.

As it turned out, for Dynamic Discs, the silver lining of a global pandemic was substantial.

Prior to March 2020, Dynamic Discs — an Emporia-based disc golf manufacturer and retailer with a large online presence — was in a period of expansion, having opened retail stores in Kansas City, Kan., Car-

“We actually had some differences of opinion about whether we should promote disc golf.”

JEREMY RUSCO, Dynamic Discs owner and CEO

all over the continent to buy from Dynamic Discs.

Even still, Rusco said that the first few weeks of the pandemic were highly concerning, as three of his TIM MOHN/GAZETTE four retail stores — includrollton, Texas and Spring- ing the flagship in Emporia dale, Ark. in addition to its — had to temporarily close original Emporia store. Ad- up shop. ditionally, it ran an online Please see Discs, Page 10 store that allowed people

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January 23 and 24, 2021

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DISCS From PAGE 9 “For us, business immediately slowed down, because, as disc golf stores started shutting their doors and people quit spending money because of the unknown and the uncertainties, we actually started to get where things were very slow and I actually was starting to run layoff scenarios or shortterm salary cuts for salaried staff,” he said.

Around that time, the Payroll Protection Program was implemented and provided just the right boost to Dynamic Discs — a $286,200 loan to save 32 jobs. Rusco said the PPP assistance helped prevent Dynamic Discs from letting anyone go or reducing anyone’s paycheck. Even the closed retail stores were still able to pay their employees until it was safe to reopen.

And then “disc golf really started to explode,” as Rusco put it.

“People started to understand that they could go outside, play disc golf, be safe, be social, practice social distancing, which is part of disc golf anyway,” he said. “Even though disc golf stores, for the most part across the country, were shut down, the online internet retailers immediately started to see a huge boost and a huge influx on business, including DynamicDiscs.com.”

Rusco said that traffic to the Dynamic Discs website increased dramatically, as did online orders. Before the pandemic, Dynamic Discs would send out an average of 100 orders per day. However, after disc golf’s sudden popularity flare, Rusco said that they started sending out 250 to 500 orders per day.

“It was evident that disc golf was going to grow and grow during the pandemic,” he said. “Still today, we’re seeing that growth. It’s a pretty exciting time for disc golf.”

Rusco said that the public’s sudden interest in disc golf as a safe social activity was largely organic and that Dynamic Discs did not specifically market the sport in that way.

“We actually had some differences of opinion about whether we should promote disc golf,” he said. “There was still so much uncertainty as to what you should do and shouldn’t do and we didn’t want to be telling people they should be going out and playing disc golf and who knows what the next day the CDC is going to say is right or not.”

At the end of June, the Disc Golf Pro Tour restarted its schedule with a tournament at the Emporia Country Club. The event was broadcast on the CBS Sports Network, which was the first time that a disc golf competition had been covered on a major sports television network.

“Dynamic Discs was the tournament host,” Rusco said. “It was actually called the Dynamic Discs Open.”

This nationwide coverage allowed Dynamic Discs’ name and logo to be broadcasted directly into the homes of viewers all across the country.

As to whether Dynamic Discs’ booming business will continue once the pandemic has abated, Rusco is uncer-

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tain, but not too concerned.

“I think it’s possible that we will slow down a little bit,” he said. “We had 100% growth from 2019 to 2020.

We were planning and expecting and optimistic that we were going to hit 15% growth, and to have 100% growth is just absolutely incredible. I think that it’s

going to be somewhere between [15% and 100%]. I’m all over the board. A part of me feels like ... in 2021 we could grow 50%.”

Rusco said that, through the first few weeks of Jan. 2021, Dynamic Discs is continuing to do very well, but thinks it could be possible that that might diminish

somewhat when people can get back to their normal routines and activities.

“It’s hard to know what’s going to happen,” he said. “... All the employees that we’ve hired throughout the course of this, I fully expect ... will stay on board and be with us. Hopefully we’ll continue to have to hire more.”

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January 23 and 24, 2021

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Simmons Pet Food experiences continued growth despite pandemic

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By Adam Blake

adam@emporia.com

While last year was filled with struggle for many businesses both big and small, it actually marked a period of unprecedented growth for one of Emporia’s most well-established institutions.

Simmons Pet Food, Inc. added a total of 440 full-time jobs in 2020, becoming the town’s largest employer in the process with nearly 1,300 positions in total. The workforce boom followed 2019’s facility expansion, during which time the company unveiled a new, $60 million, 208,000-square foot flexible packaging facility.

“Completing this expansion during a pandemic created new challenges,” said Scott Salmon, President of Simmons Pet Food. “I’d like to thank our Operations leaders, Wes McClure and Brian Potter, and every member of the Emporia team for the hard work and perseverance that went into keeping people safe and making this project a success.

“As our largest wet pet food operation, Emporia plays an important role in

our ability to deliver nutritious, high-quality pet food products for our customers.

The Emporia operation is a model for the growth and success our business can achieve with a great team and strong local partnerships.”

Although some of its biggest accomplishments have occurred recently, Simmons’ tradition of growth — both in the realm of business and its positive impacts on the area — began almost as soon as it moved to Emporia, according to Regional Development Association President Kent Heermann.

“Simmons Pet Food bought its facilities here in 2010,” Heermann said.

“They’ve been a pretty steady force in the community since then. They’ve made a habit of incrementally increasing their efficiency by adding more equipment, which can result in new jobs, too. I would say that in the last three to four years, Simmons has had some of its most substantial expansions right here in Emporia. It really culminated after several months of conversations, gathering information and

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getting the right things put in place, like having the new water tower constructed out there.”

Since the packaging facility expansion, Simmons has continued improving local facilities, with the total cost of its investments now falling closer to $100 million.

However, having such an extended period of achievement — especially during a global pandemic — doesn’t simply come through adding new machines or additional square footage. Rather, it has come through an investment in workers themselves.

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January 23 and 24, 2021

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SIMMONS From PAGE 11 “Being involved in food processing, Simmons has always been a business that had to stress safe manufacturing processes, and they added on to all of that by introducing and creating more protocols,” Heermann said.

“They stepped things up in terms of screening employees and keeping track of their potential exposures outside of work, even doing things like sending masks and hand sanitizer home. Obviously, there was the addition of all sorts of personal protective equipment at the facilities, as well.

“All employees are required to wear masks on the premises, and in certain areas, there’s plexiglass between workers that might not be able to social distance as easily. There’s more frequent cleaning of commons spaces, like breakrooms, restrooms and all that, and there’s temperature checks, too. They’ve even been interviewing employees that may be away

for extended periods of time between shifts to keep track of everything there. Given the sheer number of people they employ, and the spread of COVID within the community, you have to focus on protecting your people the best you can while they’re in their work environments, and that’s been a big priority of theirs.”

With steady momentum, Simmons Pet Foods leadership is continuing to put an eye toward its future in Emporia, setting the stage for a continued, valued and increasingly successful partnership in the years to come.

“As a trusted partner in the industry, and as proud pet parents, we’re excited about the trends we see in pet ownership and the pet food market,” Salmon said. “As we look ahead, we continue to build a world-class team in Emporia and across our company to make nourishing food for the pets we love.

“I would encourage anyone interested in a career opportunity in the pet food industry to connect with us at workatsimmons.com.”

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