Tasty Pure Food Co. — one of Akron’s oldest companies — was forced to look for a new home.
A big highway interchange project meant the food distribution company’s historic red brick building on South Broadway would soon be demolished.
One community — hoping to add Tasty Pure on its tax rolls — even dangled financial incentives, hoping to land the company.
But Tasty Pure — founded in 1923 and the area’s first distributor of Chef Boyardee — stayed in town.
It moved in the spring to the former location of Steelastic at 1557 Industrial Parkway, off Tallmadge Avenue.
“Many of our customers are here, and we live here” in the area, said Andrew Heilmeier, 26, a member of Tasty Pure’s fourth generation.
Heilmeier said this as he stood in a new addition to the company’s new home.
Tasty Pure added 11,000 square feet of space — including docks as well as cold and frozen storage — to the building, bringing it to about 45,000 square feet.
Heilmeier is the son of William Heilmeier, Tasty Pure’s chief financial officer. William Heilmeier’s grandfather, James Heilmeier, founded the company that distributes meats, frozen food, canned items, beverages, cleaning products and other items to area restaurants and grocery stores as well as nursing homes, hospitals and schools.
Lasting memories
Tasty Pure moved to the Industrial Parkway facility in March. Company officials are understandably nostalgic about the old building, which dated to the early 1900s.
It was torn down last week, one of many structures demolished to make way for a new interchange with South Broadway/South Main Street and Interstate 76/77.
The Broadway building had been Tasty Pure’s home since 1963, the year the company bought Sumner’s Butter, which was housed there.
“That’s the building I grew up in and spent the first 40 years of my business career in,” said Kevin Heilmeier, 62, chief operating officer, who with his brothers Greg, 49, Dan, 61, and William, 58, make up the company’s third generation.
“I would go down there [to Broadway] as a child,” Kevin Heilmeier said. “I’d be there with my dad and my grandfather.”
The early 1900s building originally served as the administration office for the former Akron Brewing Co. The Akron Brewing brew house, which nuzzled up against the edge of the expressway, was torn down this spring.
Tasty Pure received $2.6 million for it’s old building and nearby property.
The Heilmeiers saved the panels of the landmark Sumner’s Butter sign — shaped like a carton of butter — that hung over the old building’s front door.
Sumner’s Butter is one of the branded items distributed solely by Tasty Pure.
Also saved were decades-old hulking wood desks, as well as thick wood door frames that will be turned into a large conference table.
Sensible steps
Nostalgia aside, the new building off Tallmadge Avenue is a better fit for the company, the brothers note, primarily because it’s a lot more efficient than the old multistory one.
Food items were previously stored in two buildings — the one on Broadway and a nearby warehouse. This meant Tasty Pure’s drivers had to go to two places to pick up product before making deliveries.
Tasty Pure CEO Greg Heilmeier noted another attraction of the Industrial Parkway property: It includes land on which to build, should additional space be needed.
“I look at this [move] as really the start of our second century,” he said, noting the company will be 100 years old in seven years.
The new single-story building also is much easier for the brothers’ father, Jim Heilmeier, 87, to negotiate. He is the emeritus chairman of the board and still comes into work every day.
The company employs 31 people, including drivers, salespeople and warehouse workers. Employees include Daniel Heilmeier, 28, who is part of the fourth generation.
Deliveries are made in a roughly 150-mile radius of Akron.
The delivery territory has grown as the number of independent restaurants — a large portion of Tasty Pure’s customer base — has shrunk.
Company expanding
One area that the company is expanding into now is storing product for food manufacturers. It has available dry space [called “ambient temperature” storage] as well as freezer and cold storage space.
“We’ll always have a street presence, but a lot of growth could come from storage,” Kevin Heilmeier said.
The company also has been beefing up distribution of its own branded cleaning products and coffee. Like Sumner’s Butter, they are made by other companies and distributed solely by Tasty Pure.
The cleaning products carry the 1557 Industrial and Janitorial Supplies label and the coffee is dubbed Broadway Gourmet — an homage to Tasty Pure’s old address.
“Anywhere where we can tie ourselves to customers, make ourselves invaluable [by offering branded items] is good,” said Andrew Heilmeier.
Katie Byard can be reached at 330-996-3781 or kbyard@thebeaconjournal.com. You can follow her @KatieByardABJ on Twitter or on Facebook at www.facebook.com.