“We’re kind of a small company that’s gotten big,” said Rob Connelly, the Henny Penny executive who recently relinquished the chief executive officer role to Kevin Buchler. (Connelly will remain active in the business as executive chairman.)
The expansions aren’t finished. Motorists on U.S. 35 may notice a building quickly becoming the Henny Penny Global Service Center.
Last year, the company purchased the 12,000-square-foot Eaton Supply building. Work may be completed as early as next month, with the building housing customer and technical services teams in about 8,200 square feet of office space, with the remainder offering space to service products.
Those products have touched your life whether you’re familiar with the company or not. If you ever ordered a chicken sandwich or fries in your favorite fast-food drive-through lane, Henny Penny fryers have likely been put to work for you. The company’s open and pressure fryers, combi ovens and other products are industry standards.
And though Connelly doesn’t necessarily like to name names, he acknowledges that more than a few household names make up the roster of Henny Penny customers.
“They do it high-volume. We’re in the busiest kitchens,“ Connelly said. “I kind of describe it as, if we were in the auto business, we make a bus. We make the world’s best bus ... if you need a bus, we’re perfect.”
Early in the pandemic, Henny Penny experienced a dramatic hit in sales. Closures and restrictions forced restaurants to close indoor dining while turning to drive-through service, and in some cases, deliveries.
But Connelly emphasized that his business laid off no workers — in fact, Henny Penny has never imposed lay-offs in its 67-year history.
Since those uncertain days of the early pandemic, Henny Penny — the company’s name derives from a children’s story — has seen sales nearly double.
By March 2021, Connelly was able to send employees a message declaring, “We’re back.”
Last year, the privately held, employee-owned company opened the doors on its Wellspring and Owner’s Hall. The year before, it staked a claim in downtown Dayton with its Five Rivers offices in the Manhattan building.
Expansion has become almost routine for Henny Penny in the past five years. Beginning in 2019, the company invested at least $16 million in its Innovation Center for product development, while further expanding the company’s manufacturing footprint. (In all, Henny Penny’s Preble County workforce has more than 400,000 square feet of production space.)
A large part of that development is devoted to employee wellness — space for working out, meeting with clinicians and therapists or arranging online meetings with healthcare providers.
“We’re just trying to impact people in a positive way by being a best place to work,” Connelly said.
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