Norman Foods History
When Wayne L. Norman came home from the Navy in the mid-forties, he had $400 in his pocket. He bought a used GMC truck and started hauling vegetables from Grand Rapids to sell to grocers and restaurants in Battle Creek. This was the beginning of the multimillion dollar business know today as Norman Foods.
Wayne knew a lot about vegetables from working on the family truck farm. His father, Lee, had purchased eight acres of land on North Washington Avenue in 1921, the year Wayne was born. Lee and his wife Elizabeth raised asparagus, radishes, green onions, tomatoes and squash to sell to the Battle Creek Sanitarium. Lee died when Wayne was sixteen years old.
On his return from the Navy, Wayne worked six months at the Battle Creek grocery, Dixie Market. He already knew the gardening end of the business. This experience gave him an understanding of what was needed for retail stores.
The new business, know as Norman Produce in 1946, started small. The entire work force was comprised of Wayne, his mother, his sister, Joyce, and Wayne's wife, Bobbie. Wayne did the truck driving, his mother wrote out bills and called customers, Joyce weighed and packaged vegetables and Bobbie did the bookkeeping and helped around the warehouse.
The work was hard and the hours long. An average workday for Wayne was twelve hours, six and sometimes seven days per week.
They continued to operate the truck garden but on a smaller scale than his father had. They still raised asparagus and a few other vegetables and sold tomato plants they grew in the green house. The warehouse/office was a small building near the greenhouse, both located behind Elizabeth Norman's house. Filling a real need in the community, the business grew. Soon Wayne hired another driver and the two men began hauling boxes of bananas, citrus fruits and seventy-pound crates of head lettuce and carrots.
As business expanded, more trucks were needed and more men to drive them. The company was also outgrowing its space. In 1954, Wayne purchased the Battle Creek branch of Taylor Produce Company, a former competitor, and moved to the new location at 86 South Division Street. The Taylor warehouse offered more storage space, loading docks, large coolers for fresh foods and a private railroad siding.
They were now handling more than fruits and vegetables. For this reason, in May 1954 the name was changed to Norman's Inc. They sold canned foods and in 1958 took on frozen foods. In 1965, non-foods such as paper and plastics were added to their inventory. The company was now known as a wholesale food supplier.
They still delivered to local grocery stores and restaurants but their clientele also included hospitals, schools and industrial customers. The old GMC truck had been retired. Now nine vehicles delivered orders within a 50 mile radius of Battle Creek. With 35 employees, the payroll totaled a quarter of a million dollars.
Products were coming in on railroad cars. Workers averaged three carloads per day, in addition to the items trucked in, such as Michigan potatoes from Stanton and McBride, celery from Kalamazoo, apples from Hillcrest Orchard in Augusta, and watermelon and cantaloupe from California and Mexico. Garden vegetables came mainly from Florida and California.
At one Time, Norman's received a shipment of lettuce in what was then described as the "largest mechanically refrigerated box car ever to bring a cargo into Michigan." The Grand Truck Western Railroad hauled a new Pacific Express "reefer" loaded with 1070 cases of lettuce from Yuma, Arizona to Battle Creek in just 9 days. The lettuce was kept at a constant temperature of 34 degrees, resulting in a much fresher product than had been possible before.
1966 saw the beginning of a modernization project. An addition was built on the north side of the plant for receiving operations and more storage. It increased warehouse space by twenty-five percent, doubled the frozen food capacity and added four truck bays. The office was brought up to date with the installation of an electronic bookkeeping machine, costing $16,000.
Business prospered and still more space was needed. In 1971 construction began on a 45,000-square-foot metal warehouse attached to the back of the original building. This doubled the ware house space to accommodate more automated handling of products.
In 1972, Norman's employed 50 people and listed 2500 products, ranging from paper plates to mayonnaise to chicken Cordon Blue. They also offered portion control meats so a restaurant owner could order a specific size and weight steak, pork chop or prime rib.
Norman's was doing five million dollars per year in business. The company had four sales divisions, one for fresh produce and holiday specialties; another for canned foods; a third for frozen foods; and a fourth for non-foods, such as paper, plastics and cleaning agents.
Today Norman Foods employs 60 workers, has 18 delivery trucks covering a 70 mile radius of Battle Creek and lists over 4000 items in its inventory. In addition to a sophisticated computer system in the office, salespeople are equipped with laptops for order entry, menu planning and expanded product information. Customers can also log on to the company's website to access account information and to place orders.
Wayne is still active in the business and shares management with his sons, Gary, Jeff and Steve. They strive to uphold the principles on which the company was founded - finest quality products, fair prices and prompt and courteous service. Concern for their customers and filling their needs is always a priority.
Norman's has come a long way from the truck garden and asparagus patch.
Thanks to Marie Latta for authoring this history on Norman Foods.