News and Events

Hoffmaster® Exhibits at 2010 Dietary Managers Association Show

Foodservice buyers from the United States, Guam, Spain, and Canada met at the Dietary Managers Association (DMA) Show held Wednesday, July 7, 2010 at the Chicago Hilton Hotel in Chicago, Illinois, to learn about the newest and best products on the market.

Hoffmaster® exhibited along with over 50 companies, including Sysco, U.S. Foodservice, and Gordon Food Service. Attendance at this show was approximately 500 and included managers who are responsible for purchasing, storing, preparing, and delivering balanced meals to clients three times a day, 365 days a year. While this show appears small, the magnitude of exposure was huge and it was an excellent opportunity to meet face-to-face with these managers.

We are excited to announce that we had a successful showing and were well represented at the show by Jamie Peabody, Chris Thake, and Elenie Katsaros. “Highlights from the show included Hoffmaster’s presentation of Naptastik®, FashnPoint®, and traycovers on the demonstration stage” said Chris Thake. This was an excellent opportunity for Chris to showcase our products to all attendees.

We look forward to exhibiting at the DMA Expo on October 7, 2010 at the Hilton Chicago in Wichita, Kansas. Watch for upcoming details!

Hoffmaster® Joins Wisconsin Restaurant Association

Hoffmaster® is pleased to announce that we are now a Supplier Associate Member of the Wisconsin Restaurant Association (WRA). The WRA has been in existence since 1933 as a not-for-profit trade association dedicated to supporting the foodservice industry.

WRA membership includes thousands of foodservice businesses representing virtually every size and style of establishment in the state. Restaurateur members include:

Fine dining establishments

Mom-and-pop supper clubs

Small cafes

Fast food outlets

Corporate chain restaurants

Institutional food service operations

Catering businesses

Hotel and motel food services

In addition to restaurateur and food service operators, WRA has hundreds of Supplier Associate Members like Hoffmaster® that provide goods and services to the restaurant industry. According to Cindy Herbert, Vice President of Marketing for Hoffmaster®, “Through our support of the WRA, we will be able to reach new customers to better understand their needs which will help us develop solution based products and services for the foodservice industry.”

By uniting with the WRA, we have access to information and services to help us better run and promote our businesses. And, a strong membership gives WRA a more powerful voice in pursuing its mission to protect, promote and improve the restaurant industry.

Joining the WRA let’s the state’s licensed restaurateurs know that Hoffmaster® cares about the future of Wisconsin’s restaurant industry!

Dietary Managers Association (DMA)

Hoffmaster® is pleased to announce that we are now a Supplier Member of the Dietary Managers Association (DMA), which is a national non-for-profit association established in 1960 that today represents more than 14,000 professionals dedicated to the mission of providing optimum nutritional care through foodservice management.

Hoffmaster Group, Inc. to Continue Consolidation
West Haven, CT plant to close

Oshkosh, WI, January 12, 2010 - The Foodservice Division of Hoffmaster Group, Inc., a leading U.S. manufacturer of premium disposable tableware products, today announced that it will close its West Haven, CT facility at 300 Callegari Drive as part of an on-going operations consolidation. The company will continue to run its Oshkosh, WI Foodservice manufacturing site. The West Haven plant closing will affect approximately 85 employees.

“Since the acquisitions of Smith-Lee in Oneida, NY and Brooklace in West Haven, CT in 2008, we have been carefully reviewing our overall operations,” said Foodservice President Jeffrey R. Miller. “We closed the Smith-Lee plant last April, and our plan to further consolidate manufacturing and distribution is necessary given the level of excess capacity we continue to have. Our Oshkosh, WI location will inherit volume due to the West Haven closure.”

Meetings are taking place today to inform the West Haven employees about the plant closing and what services will be available to them. The closure will take place in two steps. Manufacturing will end immediately on January 12, 2010, and all customer shipments from inventory will cease no later than January 29.

Miller added, “The Brooklace plant has had an excellent reputation in the market for many years, making the decision to close it very difficult due to the impact on its people. This move, however, positions us to make best use of our available assets and stay competitive in a market that remains very challenging.”

Hoffmaster® is a one-stop source offering a complete line of disposable paper tableware needs for the restaurant, hospitality and transportation industries. The business was established in 1947 and is a platform company for Hoffmaster Group, Inc.

Hoffmaster® is proud and excited to introduce a brand new category of products
called FashnPoint®. This new category of products includes Dinner Napkins,
Placemats, and Flat Packs™. FashnPoint® utilizes a state of the art manufacturing process that combines air and a unique embossing to create a softer and thicker
product unlike any other offered in our disposables category today.

We know once our customers touch and feel FashnPoint®, they will agree this is a perfect high quality alternative to linens and other disposables that will allow customers
to enhance or maintain their image, while reducing usage and ultimately, cost!

For more information on FashnPoint® and the latest from Hoffmaster®, browse
through our website.

Hoffmaster® Packer Tailgate Party

Hoffmaster holds Packer Tailgate Party for United Way on August 12, 2009.
Hoffmaster employees raised over $2,000 through the “feeds” at all three shifts
and two Packer boards with donated prizes per quarter. So far this year,
Hoffmaster, a Campaign Pacesetter is over $7,000 in monies raised to benefit
the Oshkosh Area United Way Campaign!


VP of Marketing, Cindy Herbert &

Corporate Controller, Jenny Terreau

HR Manager, Laura Tegelman

Safety Advocate, Mike Gonzales

Director of Operations, Tim Allen

President, Jeff Miller

Patti Suda & Mary Dinger (both in Accounting)

did all the decorating!!

President, Jeff Miller, serving one of three shifts!

Tim Allen, Director of Operations, (not pictured) was
Jeff's partner in serving at all three shifts.

Hoffmaster Makes Headlines Thanks to our
Dedication to Innovation

Hoffmaster has done it once again! We are featured in a CBS Channel 5 news story that focuses on Linen-Like® and CaterWrap®. This story highlights how Hoffmaster® continues to innovate, meet the needs of its customers, and continue to find cost savings solutions. This is a very positive story which follows up on an article published in the June issue of the New North B2B magazine. Be sure to check it out!

Hoffmaster Exhibits at 2009 National
Restaurant Association Show

We are excited to announce that we had a successful showing at the
National Restaurant Association Show held May 16-19, 2009 at McCormick
Place in Chicago. We presented our brand new product category, hot stamp
napkins, and introduced our new spokesperson, Nate Gladmann, of Nate’s
Napkin Shack. Nate was unable to attend the show due to taking care of his
restaurant but we hope he can attend the show in the future!

Left to right: Adam Wiener, Leon Cooper, Cindy Herbert, Maggie Faust,

Melody Chambers, and Leslie Taneri

The graphics for this year’s booth featured Tabletop Solutions from Nate, including:

- Use Less with Linen-Like®
- Promote your brand with Custom Print
- Reduce labor with CaterWrap®

The NRA Show is now in its 90th year, and always has been a powerful driver of commerce and progress.   We look forward to participating in the future!

Blazin' Challenge a SUCCESS!!

Hoffmaster employees are starting their 2009 United Way campaign a little early this year!

Pat Frees (Labor Relations Supervisor), Bill Snearly (Napkin Production Supervisor), and Mike Gonzales (Safety Advocate) have spearheaded a Blazin' Wings Challenge at Buffalo Wild Wings (BBW) in Oshkosh on May 11 to raise funds for the Oshkosh Area United Way. The Blazin' Wings challenge is having 6 minutes to down 12 chicken wings spun in BWW's signature Blazin' sauce without any other food or beverage to help you through.

What started out as a simple conversation between a couple guys, on who could eat these hot, hot wings the fastest, blossomed into a much anticipated event! "As we were doing a little trash talking about who wouldn't be able to handle the challenge, the thought occurred to us. What if we turn this into a little fundraiser?" said Frees. He took the idea to Julie Hoyt, Executive Assistant, who then contacted the management at Buffalo Wild Wings. "They loved the idea!" said Hoyt.

The challenge was opened up to the entire company and a total of 14 employees stepped up to the plate, including the CEO, Rory Leyden. Leyden became unavailable to attend the challenge on the 11th so Buffalo Wild Wings brought the Blazin' Wings Challenge to him! This past Thursday, he downed all 12 wings in 3 minutes and 30 seconds in Hoffmaster's main lunch room in front of a cheering crowd of employees.

Hoffmaster's President, Jeff Miller, upped the anti by pledging $25 to any participant that raises over $250 for the United Way. "I'm hoping to write a check to all 14 employees," said Miller.

If you'd like to witness the "frenzy" and support these folks raising funds for United Way, just show up at Buffalo Wild Wings in Oshkosh on Monday, May 11 at 5:30 PM.

In March, Hoffmaster was presented with a Spirit Award at the 47th Annual United Way Meeting for the way the organization rallied around United Way through creative fundraising.

Hoffmaster Launches the Start of Our First Ever
Social Media Campaign!

Social media is a rapidly growing communication method that is used in conjunction with tradition methods and marketing tools. Done correctly, social media is about developing meaningful relationships with current and prospective customers in their natural habitat. After providing the marketplace a very predictable and traditional marketing look over the 62 year history of the company, we are launching a very comprehensive, upbeat campaign, that is designed to enable us to reach customers we most likely do not reach effectively today and in the process, Hoffmaster will become more like a person and less like a machine.

We are pleased to introduce our new spokesperson, Nate Gladmann!
To learn more about Nate and his association with Hoffmaster, please visit his
very own page. You can also view his YouTube debut!!

Nate has been very busy professing his love of Hoffmaster napkins.

You can find him on: