Original Shearer's Brewster plant 40th birthday celebration

BREWSTER – 1982 almost seems like yesterday for Ron VanHorn, who's been a plant employee at Shearer's Foods for the last four decades.

VanHorn, a tortilla chip producer, was 18 when he started working at the company's Brewster plant, his first steady job.

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At the time he began punching a timecard, VanHorn was one of about two dozen employees at the Shearer's Brewster site, the company's first production facility. Today, the plant has more than 300 workers and operates 24 hours a day on a weekly basis.

The original Shearer's plant, 692 Wabash Ave. N, celebrated its 40-year mark Wednesday with a pair of cookouts for its 308 employees.

VanHorn said he's proud to be one of the company's first production line workers.

"It's just my job and been a long time. It's been pretty good," said a humble VanHorn as he spoke about being one of the company's longest tenured employees.

Shearer's Foods was started in 1974 by Jack and Rosemary Shearer. The company is headquartered in Massillon and has plants around the country.

Multiple snack foods are currently produced at the Brewster site, including regular potato chips, tortilla chips, cheese puffs and curls, and kettle chips.

Jason Hall was a Fairless High School teenager when he started working at the Shearer's plant in 1993. He started out as a sanitation technician. Now, he's a supervisor in the field.

"For me, it started as a job to get money to buy a car. It turned into a career," said Hall. "It's nice to see the growth over the years."

Shearer's has grown into a billion dollar company and has 14 sites combined in the U.S. and Canada. The business employs more than 5,000 people, according to Tonya Liedtke, Brewster plant director, who began working at the company 21 years ago as a potato chip packer.

Shearer's is a third party snack food manufacturer, according to Liedtke, meaning that large companies contract with Shearer's to make snacks under their name.

Brand name potato chips are no longer sold by Shearer's, but there are some remaining bags in circulation, or for sale, at unspecified grocery stores in and around Ohio, Liedtke said.

The Brewster plant's onsite outlet store closed about five years ago, and is being remodeled as a training center for new hires and conference area for corporate employees.

"That's something new we're doing to occupy a quality space," Liedtke said.

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