When it comes to yellow mustard, Manteno Township-based Plochman’s Mustard has few rivals in this region or the United States, for that matter.

The 85-member workforce at the organization’s manufacturing site along North Boudreau Road just southeastern of the village limits in the Diversatech campus, remains busy operating a pair of eight-hour shifts, six days per week, producing its famous yellow mustard, but not just for consumers that call the U.S. home.

The company is delighting consumers across the globe.

As a result of its expanding reach and its growing product line of mustards as well as salad dressings, Plochman’s, which has called its 104,000-square-foot Kankakee County plant home since 1997, is the recipient of the Excellence in Manufacturing Award as part of the Daily Journal’s 2022 Progress Awards.

To say the company is in growth mode would be putting it mildly — like its award-winning yellow mustard.

Within the past year, the company’s products have found their way into national retailers, Costco Wholesale outlets and store shelves in Spain and Israel.

“We now have an international presence,” noted Manteno plant manager Martin Faye with a wide smile across his face. “It’s kind of scary.”

GROCERY BUSINESS GROWS

Faye, plant manager since 2014, noted, of course, that U.S. consumers are still the bedrock of the product produced here. He said U.S. outlets are the destination for some 90% of the plant’s products.

“Getting into Costco, a huge retailer like that, is a great opportunity,” he said.

And while the COVID-19 pandemic has been hard on so many business locations these past two years, it would not be fair to count Plochman’s among them.

Faye said undoubtedly due to the people being homebound for much of that time due to businesses either being closed or limited to a certain number of patrons, grocery store shopping boomed and Plochman’s mustard products and its dressings were in demand.

HISTORY IMPORTANT

Founded in 1852 as Premium Mustard Mills in Chicago, it was later acquired by Moritz Plochman, a trained chemist and emigrant from Wurttemberg. In 1957, they began selling mustard in the now-famous yellow squeeze barrels.

Plochman’s is one of the top five brands in the United States. In addition to its top-selling American yellow mustard, it also has stone ground, spicy, Dijon, BrickStone pale ale, Kosciusko, horseradish, Cuban and sweet fig.

Faye doesn’t take the company’s history for granted.

“It’s just a privilege to carry on this legacy,” he said.

MUSTARD SEED SHORTAGE

And did you know there has been a considerable shortage of mustard seed — the obvious key ingredient to the mustard product? Due to extreme heat in western Canada and then flooding conditions, between 30% to 40% of the mustard seed production was lost.

Faye noted the short supply of mustard seed has caused a pound of seed to increase from about 45 cents to $1.80.

That figure may not sound like much, but while Faye was somewhat elusive on how much mustard seed Plochman’s consumes annually — due to competitive reasons — he noted it would be safe to say the company uses in excess of 1 million pounds yearly.

While Plochman’s produces other products at its site, he was quick to assert that “mustard is king here.”

“This is a mustard company. We are about mustard production,” he said. “Yellow mustard is the staple of the company, but we continue to look to reinvent ourselves.”

EXPANSION COMING

It is also necessary to note that Plochman’s owns another 5.5-acre parcel directly north of the existing plant. The company purchased the property in April 2018 for $220,000 and while it currently remains farmland, it would not be a stretch to think the company will be expanding its Manteno operations, perhaps within the next three years, he noted.

“We will be out of space in this facility in the next few years. That’s a good problem to have,” he said. “We will really be at that point very soon. Kankakee County has been a great place to do business. The community has been very supportive. We couldn’t ask to be in a better place.”

He credits the strong Midwestern work ethic. While he has seen some shift in the work ethic, he said the plant has been able to attract enough workers to get the job done.

“We have a core group here to 35-40 employees who I can count on day in and day out,” he said. “To be honest, my concern is overworking them.”

Like nearly every other business in Kankakee County, in Illinois and across the country, staffing has remained an issue since the pandemic.

While the company and its employees have worked long hours to keep up with product demand, Faye said there are still job openings.

But it hasn’t slowed production.

“2020 was a great year,” he said. “2021 was even better. 2022, with Cosco and exports, we are doing well.”

1852: Premium Mustard Mills — what would later become Plochman's Inc. — is founded in Chicago.

1871: The factory survives the Great Chicago Fire, a three-day disaster that destroyed roughly 3.3 miles of the city and left more than 100,000 Chicago residents homeless.

1881-83: Trained chemist Moritz Plochman emigrates to the United States and purchases Premium Mustard Mills, pledging to make “first-class” mustards.

1890-1901: Moritz Plochman produces horseradish, chow-chow and a variety of sauces at his mustard mills along with root beer, sarsaparilla and other beverages at his other company, Sterling Springs Bottling Works.

1902-1929: Moritz moves the company to a location near Lake Michigan and later to one on Chicago’s Clinton Street to accommodate the growing demand for mustard. Moritz passes the torch to his son Carl.

1930s: Plochman’s Mustard expands again and moves to Cicero. In 1933, supermarkets are born and begin selling Plochman’s mustard.

1957: Pioneering a new use for plastics, Plochman’s introduces yellow mustard in a distinctive yellow squeeze barrel, the first successful squeeze condiment in the United States.

1971: Shortly after a new generation of Plochmans (Carl Jr. and Fred) take the reins, Plochman’s is awarded a trademark on its distinctive Squeeze Barrel bottle.

1985-1989: Kosciusko brand mustard joins the growing Plochman’s product family.

2010: HACO Inc., a food manufacturer headquartered in Switzerland, acquires the brand and Plochman’s takes on a new global role.

2018: Plochman's Bourbon Mustard was declared grand champion of the 2018 World-Wide Mustard Competition.

2020: The company introduces new labels and new flavors.