Sample book with community resources insert

ABIMAR FOODS, INC.
Try walking into AbiMar Foods without smiling—you
just cannot do it.
Not with the aroma of fresh-baked cookies that smell like
they just came out of your grandmother’s oven. Not with that
cute Lil’ Dutch Maid inviting you to try a bag of her windmill-shaped
cookies. Not with yummy chocolate chips or
vanilla crèmes tempting you at every turn. Even the employees
are all smiles, knowing they are turning out products
that are guaranteed to bring a smile. They will even tell you
how happy they are.
“It’s a great company,” an employee for sixteen-plus years
said. “It’s really like a family.”
It has been that way from the beginning when Steve and
Vicki Fehr bought Magic Dream Cookies and founded Fehr
Foods, Inc., in 1992. Along with it, the “Lil Dutch Maid”
Brand was created. The company sold in 2010 to Grupo
Nutresa from South America.
Nutresa is a more than 100-year-old Colombia-based company
Food Holding Group with presence in fourteen countries.
The name “AbiMar” comes from the first three letters of
Abilene and Marietta, Oklahoma, where the company once
had a plant.
Satisfied customers are the greatest testament to AbiMar’s
success, but happy employees tell a lot about the company,
too. By the end of 2017, AbiMar Foods had over 600
employees from every walk of life, diverse origins, cultures
and languages. Many employees are refugees from countries
all over the world who have been resettled in Abilene
through the local office of the International Rescue
Committee. Jobs at AbiMar Foods are varied. A master baker
is charged with coming up with new recipes to meet changing
demands. An employee in accounts payable and payroll
remembers when the company started and had only two
lines, compared to seven now. And, the administrative office
had only five employees. Now there are twenty-five.
“It was very laid back,” she recalled. “Now, it’s a little
more hectic” but still an enjoyable place to work.
Another employee was surprised when she saw the ad in
the newspaper for a position at AbiMar Foods. “I didn’t even
know we had a cookie factory here,” she said. But now she
has risen in the ranks to the level of manager.
Visitors to AbiMar Foods are in for a treat—literally. They
will hear employees saying things like, “It’s been a good life
for me.” and “I like it a lot—it’s always a challenge.”
In addition to meeting friendly and knowledgeable
employees, visitors get to tour the heart of the plant where
the magic happens. Before entering the production area,
guests put on a red hairnet, just one of the many safety and
ABILENE, TEXAS: HEART OF THE BIG COUNTRY
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