Doing a double-take on that figure? Well, don’t. It’s for real — f’real foods, that is!
f’real foods is a frozen blended beverage company that began selling milkshakes, smoothies and frozen cappuccinos to convenience stores, along with a self-serve blender, in 2003. About three years later, Smith Dairy (Orrville, Ohio) came on board as a key supplier to fill the milkshake cups. And today, Smith filled its 100,000,000th cup. To put that in perspective, that’s enough to serve roughly one in every three people in the United States with a f’real milkshake from Smith Dairy. Of course, that’s not how it really breaks down, since once you’ve tried a f’real milkshake, you keep on coming back for more!
To celebrate the impressive milestone, f’real ordered a “gold” blender cup carriage for Mack to install in a self-serve blender that will soon be presented to Smith Dairy employees.
The f’real team at Mack was also recognized for a record month of blender manufacturing and sales. “We’ve enjoyed very good continued growth as a company, especially with our next generation blender,” says Ed Wilks, director of equipment operations, f’real foods. “Mack’s capabilities have stepped up to our needs as our demand for more blenders has exceeded our expectations month after month. This month’s forecast was a record one by a significant percentage – not only did Mack meet the forecast demand but they exceeded it and built safety stock as well.”
Before shipping the “golden blender” to Smith Dairy, the f’real team at Mack assembled for a photo to commemorate the accomplishment. “You are all to be congratulated for the work you have done to make this moment possible,” said Wilks. “You are an extension of f’real foods and we are extremely proud to have you as part of our team.”