I WANT CANDY

Perfetti Van Melle USA at a glance

Perfetti Van Melle USA

3645 Turfway Road

Erlanger, KY 41018 perfettivanmelleus.com

PVM IN ERLANGER: A SWEET HISTORY

Perfetti Van Melle’s history books, by its own admission, are “a bit murky” on the specific date the company opened its Erlanger facility. The marker stone outside the company’s front entrance says, “The Silver Grove, 1972-1997 Perfetti Van Melle USA.”

As far as company officials know, the Van Melle family operated in the area in the early 1970s. The Erlanger office and factory are located in its facility on Turfway Road, which has been expanded several times. Another expansion is set for later this year to add a 50% capacity increase on its Airhead Bars line. (The company promises a new selfie-worthy sign will be installed in front of its Erlanger office and factory later this year.)

In 2019, Perfetti opened its central distribution center, “Showcase” warehouse named in honor of the old Erlanger Showcase Cinemas site it calls home. The Showcase Warehouse houses all its inventory to service the entire USA. The company continues to push innovation in its commitment to the environment, evident in its 10% and 18% reduced electric and water consumption, respectively, since 2019 and 800 tons of cardboard recycled in 2021.

DID YOU KNOW?

• If you placed the Airheads bars produced annually at Perfetti Van Melle’s Erlanger facility end-to-end, they would wrap around the world 2.3 times.

• If you lined up the Airheads Xtremes Belts produced in Erlanger annually, you could make a dozen rainbow trails from Erlanger, Kentucky, to Shanghai, China.

• You could fill almost 259 football stadiums with the amount of Mentos Pure Fresh Gum the company packages in Erlanger each year.

A VARIETY OF (CULTURAL) FLAVOR

For its confections to pay dividends at the counter, Perfetti knows it must invest in the people responsible for producing its monetized morsels. Buxton says this is why Perfetti strives to be pioneering in how it not only works to attract and retain talent but also train and continually engage them.

“One of the ways we continually improve our culture and ways of working comes from a global employee survey that we complete every two years. This helps us understand employee engagement compared to ‘best in class’ peer companies,” she says. “From this survey, we select one or two focus areas and create action plans to either build on an area of strength or improve an area of opportunity.”

Buxton says the survey has revealed the company’s Erlanger employees continue to give the company high marks for diversity, a company focus area for several years. Establishing a “whole brain” team, Perfetti launched a volunteer diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) resource group which now organizes events for Black History, Women’s History, Pride months and more. Helping bridge language gaps, Perfetti offers Spanish learning to its English-speaking employees and ESL for native Spanish speakers. The team also established Veterans Day as an official company holiday, adding a veteran wall of honor highlighting its retired military service members.

With 600-plus employees now part of a U.S. workforce that has tripled in the last seven years, being inventive has been a key aspect of the company’s growth.

“For recruiting, like most companies, we have had to be very creative over the last few years, particularly to fill our manufacturing jobs … Our DEI team came up with a great idea to advertise our job postings in zip codes with the highest levels of diversity,” says Buxton. “Our HR team recently updated our employee orientation program, now called Oscar Camp named after the big red balloon on the front of our Airheads packaging. This is a three-day program with engaging videos, fun activities, a factory tour and more that helps employees to understand our company, our products and most importantly supports our positive and fun company culture.”

Championing unity and opportunity for all are important aspects of Perfetti’s culture too, as reflected in its “Level Up for Sweet Success” program. Using both digital and on-the-job learning, the program encourages employees to learn new skills, making them eligible for promotions while allowing the company to develop trainers for its next generation. This is in addition to a variety of employee benefits including bonuses, wellness reimbursements, paid time off for volunteer opportunities and more.

Perfetti North America Vice President of People & Culture, Sandy Schneider, says all the efforts are intended to achieve a simple goal: Create an engaged, interactive and productive environment where people know they are valued.

“Perfetti Van Melle is a privately held global company with operations in more than 30 countries and over 18,000 employees worldwide. This makes us a truly globally diverse organization with employees from a variety of races, beliefs, languages and cultures,” Schneider says. “One of our most important company values is ‘Care for our People.’ This value clearly states that ‘we value different styles, skills, experiences and backgrounds and acknowledge that these differences result in greater creativity and better insights.’”

Home Sweet Home

With consumers in 150+ countries now enjoying its products, Perfetti is investing more into its future – and that includes its Erlanger facility with $10 million to support its growing Airheads Xtremes Belts line plus investments in its centralized robotic palletization system and robotic packing line. All the investments prove one thing: Perfetti’s old Kentucky home will remain a critical part of its future for many years to come.

“The Greater Cincinnati region is a great place to live with a high quality of living. Our factory and warehouse are conveniently located on the I-75 corridor, which is a key central highway system to reach the entire USA,” Buxton says. “With the recent announcement of the Brent Spence companion bridge and corridor project funding, this transportation network will become an even more important part of the overall USA supply network … We continue to focus on innovation in all we do (in our) approaches to people, processes and products.” Being surrounded by candy all day doesn’t hurt, either.

“(I love) the candy-infused smell of our office!” says Schneider. “We have some of the best jobs in the world – everyone on our team works in an amazing, fun business where we get to make people smile and bring moments of joy to their