Richard Mazer took over Friday as chief executive of Brea-based Ventura Foods LLC with a goal of making one of Orange County’s biggest private companies bigger.
Mazer said he is looking to double the size of what he calls a “big little company” in five or six years. Ventura Foods, which makes Hidden Valley salad dressing and other food products, counts yearly sales of $1.5 billion and employs 2,500 people, including some 200 in Brea.
“It might be an ambitious goal,” Mazer said. “But I think it’s possible.”
Along with salad dressing, Ventura makes oils, shortenings and other products for the food service industry, selling to wholesalers, larger chain restaurants and big retailers. Customers include Burger King Corp., Wendy’s International Inc., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Sysco Corp.
Ventura has about 12 plants, including three in California. One is in Industry, where the company used to be based before moving to Brea in 2003. Two are in Los Angeles.
Ventura doesn’t do any production at its Brea headquarters.
About two-thirds of Ventura’s business is in food service, a segment that has grown faster than retail in recent years, Mazer said.
Ventura sells big packages of products,35 pounds of shortening and the like.
In tonnage, shortening is Ventura’s biggest selling product, Mazer said.
The company is a joint venture of Tokyo’s Mitsui & Co. and CHS Inc., of Inver Grove Heights, Minn.
Ventura plans to come up with products through research and development and by acquiring businesses, according to Mazer.
The company is eyeing large business units of companies with national brands, he said.
For more on this story, see the April 4 print edition of the Orange County Business Journal.
