And East Texas manufacturing is not all oil and gas. It's candy and gourmet foods, too. The payroll has jumped to 400 employees during peak seasons and 200 on average. TMAC has assisted the candy company with a market study of the gourmet food industry and technical information on the drying of pasta products. It also is helping Kennedy locate and purchase a machine to tie ribbon around packages.
Employees currently tie gift gourmet packages by hand, which can result in carpal tunnel syndrome.
After the market study, which has led to the company's increase in the gourmet foods market share, the company had to focus on its problems with making pasta. Because it makes pasta by hand, the company lacks some of the modern machinery used by other food processing plants. The company has searched for a cure to humidity problems that affect the pasta without much luck, but TMAC manufacturing specialist Tanima Bhadra found technical information Kennedy needed to control the pasta-making climate. It is not because we are not getting orders. Our sales are now triple.