Ryssdal: One of the reasons we wanted to talk to you is because we were interested in talking to a businessperson who is dealing with vaccinating his or her employees, and you had your staff all set up, but lo and behold, it was Johnson & Johnson, and we know how that’s gone. So, it’s not easy, but we’ve not had any trouble filling production spots. Loudenback: Yeah, we’re back down, but as you probably recall, my wife runs the department here at Grand Prairie Foods, and she’s done an incredible job with her team to find and hire people we need to expand with our business. Talk to me about the hiring situation, because, as you surely know, has lowest unemployment rates in the nation. Ryssdal: Well, that’s good. Now, it takes people to get all those foods into those packages. But fortunately, we do a lot of prepackaged items like sandwiches and the like that many of those hotels have shifted to, and that business has gone nuts for us right now.
I don’t think it’ll come back to the degree it was pre-pandemic because what I’m finding is that a lot of customers in the hotel business that have gotten away from the breakfast buffet aren’t in a real hurry to get back to it. I mean, we should, we should remind people, what you do is, and this is the thing that sticks in my mind about that visit we had with you out a number of years ago, the big egg machine where you make those prepackaged eggs that that go in, you know, self-serve containers in hotels and buffet places, right? You’re banking that’s coming back in a hurry?
Ryssdal: What I hear you saying, but not using the actual words is “pent-up demand,” right? There’s business travel, there’s personal travel. We’re not there yet, but just hearing tremendous feedback and reports from my customers that bookings are up significantly for the summer months. Kurt Loudenback: Well, I think we’re going to get back to normal within my predicted period of six to 12 months. Kai Ryssdal: So we spoke to you last June, and one of the things you said, I asked, as I was asking everybody back then, how long do you think this is gonna last? And how long till you’re back to normal? And you said, “Oh, I don’t know, six to 12 months.” So here we are at the eight-, nine-month mark. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation. Loudenback spoke with “Marketplace” host Kai Ryssdal about pent-up demand, vaccinating employees and what South Dakota’s tight labor market means for his company. As a maker of precooked eggs, breakfast sandwiches and other packaged foods mostly for hotels and convenience stores, Grand Prairie Foods is also inextricably linked to the hospitality sector, which was among the industries hit hardest by COVID-19. South Dakota is one of four states (along with Nebraska, Utah and Vermont) with an unemployment rate just under 3%. Kurt Loudenback, the CEO and co-owner of Grand Prairie Foods in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, employs a couple of hundred people in one of the tightest labor markets in the country.
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