Fenton-based ingredients supplier is a family-owned business that 'loves their people' - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Daniel Neman

FENTON — The chocolate in your chocolate milk may well come from a relatively unknown St. Louis-area company, where the employees are as contented as the cows.

International Food Products Corp. was voted one of the Top Workplaces among mid-sized businesses in the St. Louis region for 2023. The employees may be happy, but the Fenton-based company may not be the first that comes to mind when listing area businesses.

“We tout ourselves as the best-kept secret in the food industry, and I think we’re also the best-kept secret in St. Louis,” said Jamie Moritz, the general manager.

IFPC makes and distributes dozens of products through 14 distribution centers around the country. In the local area, at their Aviator manufacturing plant (the old Ford factory) in Hazelton, the biggest product is chocolate dairy powder, which is used to make chocolate milk.

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The powder is shipped out to dairy companies that mix it with milk and sugar or high fructose corn syrup.

“We supply ingredients to food manufacturers and dairy processors,” Moritz said. “Names you know and names you don’t. Everyone from General Mills to Golden Foods in St. Louis, from California to New York,” Moritz said.

Food companies reach out to IFPC when they need industrial-sized amounts of olive oil or honey, granulated sugar or chocolate chips, sea salt or vitamin C. They even carry such obscure grains as amaranth and teff, though sales of these, Moritz said, are minimal.

Two of their plants — one in St. Louis and one in Kansas City — are devoted to sugar and corn sweeteners. These items can either be kept in their original forms and shipped out to customers, or the sugar, for instance, can be turned into liquid sucrose and delivered in bulk trucks.

They also buy and resale raw ingredients, essentially acting as warehouses, or delivering the goods directly from the manufacturers to the customers.

The company was founded in 1974 by Fred Brown Sr., who now acts as the company’s chairman. His son, Clayton Brown, is the CEO. According to his company biography, Clayton Brown began working at his father’s company when he was still in high school, unloading railcars of sugar at the warehouse.

The family still owns the business.

“What makes us great is simple: The Brown family and the family atmosphere that they live every day, not just preach,” said Moritz, who came to the company in 1997 and has never worked anywhere else.

That family atmosphere is evident in the company’s social media posts: They have an entire week of festivities at Christmas; food and drinks for employees and their families at 9 Mile Garden; Halloween activities that last year included photos of employees’ children in their costumes; bring your dog to work day; special food for the Cardinals’ opening day and a lot more.

“The family loves their people. That shines through in a lot of ways, in the way that they take care of us. They are in business not to make a profit but to provide a good life for the people who work for them,” Moritz said.

“They show that in the way they compensate employees, the way they value the work-life balance. They did that before COVID, before it was trendy. They’ve always had that value, your own family is more important than work.”

The company offers what Moritz calls “a very flexible remote schedule.” Employees can come in one day a week or up to five days a week.

“But we create an atmosphere where people want to come in and engage with other people and not just do the work. We’re a people business,” Moritz said.

IFPC has about 450 employees around the country, with 150 or so in the St. Louis area. The local number includes workers at two sister companies that are also owned by the Brown family, the sustainability-minded Green Field Solutions and the animal-food company International Ingredient Corporation.

Kate Berryman, a training and development specialist, has been with the companies for 10 years. She enjoys the family atmosphere, the flexibility and the fact that “everyone here is super-nice,” she said.

An important part of the esprit de corps are all of the events, such as the annual bags — cornhole — tournament held each May.

“It’s so much fun and it’s a great way to mingle and meet people you don’t see all the time,” she said.

Top workplaces, midsize category

There were 66 companies with 499-150 regional employees who participated in the survey.

Rank	Name	Founded	Ownership	Sector	Headquarters	Area employees
1	Benjamin F Edwards	2008	Private	Financial services	St. Louis	195
2	International Food Products Corp.	1974	Private	Other	Fenton	224
3	RedKey Realty Leaders	2012	Private	Real estate	St. Louis	195
4	USA Mortgage, a Division of DAS Acquisition Company, LLC	2001	Partnership	Mortgage	St. Louis	338
5	Buckingham Wealth Partners	1994	Parent company	Financial services	St. Louis	286
6	Moneta	1869	Private	Financial services	St. Louis	412
7	Core & Main	2017	Private	Wholesale	St. Louis	325
8	Guild Mortgage Company	1960	Public	Mortgage	Chesterfield	200
9	CLA	1983	Partnership	Accounting and professional services	Minneapolis	187
10	BAH	1914	Public	Consulting	McLean, Va.	196
11	Northwestern Mutual - Clayton	2011	Cooperative/Mutual	Financial services	Milwaukee	300
12	GFI Digital	1999	Private	Office technology	Maryland Heights	170
13	Joyce Meyer Ministries	1985	Private	Religion	Fenton	356
14	HOK	1955	Partnership	Architecture	St. Louis	158
15	Brown & Crouppen, P.C.	1979	Private	Legal services	St. Louis	255
16	ARCO Construction Company	1992	Private	Construction	St. Louis	430
17	Treats Unleashed	2003	Private	Retail	Chesterfield	155
18	Sunset Transportation	1989	Private	Logistics	St. Louis	189
19	Object Computing	1993	Private	Software development and consulting	St. Louis	155
20	HDIS	1986	Private	Medical supplies/consumer products	Olivette	240
21	Leonardo DRS - Land Systems	1969	Private	Defense technology	Bridgeton	374
22	Burns & McDonnell	1898	Private	Architecture, engineering, construction	Kansas City, Mo.	259
23	Midwest BankCentre	1906	Private	Financial services	St. Louis	280
24	CSC	1899	Private	Legal and financial services	Wilmington, Del.	180
25	Vetta Sports	1988	Private	Sports	St. Louis	282
26	Carboline Global, Inc	1947	Public	Chemicals/paint	St. Louis	150
27	Woodard Cleaning & Restoration	1946	Private	Cleaning	St. Louis	214
28	Anders Minkler Huber and Helm LLP	1965	Partnership	Accounting	St. Louis	358
29	Concordia Plan Services	1965	Nonprofit	Employee benefits	St. Louis	164
30	UNCOMN, LLC	2010	Partnership	IT consulting	Scott AFB	207
31	The Gori Law Firm	2008	Private	Legal services	Edwardsville	177
32	Midland States Bank	1881	Public	Financial services	Effingham, Ill.	224
33	Budrovich Companies	1946	Private	Subcontractors	St. Louis	216
34	PARIC Corporation	1979	Private	Building construction	St. Louis	255
35	Lutheran Church Extension Fund--Missouri Synod	1978	Nonprofit	Financial services	St. Louis	159
36	Utilitra	1999	Private	Other	Edwardsville	180
37	Orchard Farm R-V School District	1959	Public	Education	St. Charles	379
38	Classic Aire Care	1926	Private	HVAC, plumbing and drain cleaning	St. Louis	187
39	St. Patrick Center	1983	Nonprofit	Human and social services	St. Louis	200
40	Kuna Foodservice	1918	Private	Foodservice distributor	Dupo	250
41	Connectria, LLC	1996	Private		St. Louis	184
42	Donald Danforth Plant Science Center	1998	Nonprofit	Research	St. Louis	406
43	Volpi Foods	1902	Private	Food	St. Louis	233
44	Helitech	1987	Private	Home repair and civil construction	Caseyville	150
45	Scott Credit Union	1943	Nonprofit	Financial services	Edwardsville	344
46	Marsh McLennan Agency	2009	Public	Insurance	White Plains, NY	227
47	PERFICIENT	1997	Public	IT Consulting	St. Louis	289
48	CBIZ	1996	Public	Business services	Independence, Ohio	379
49	Distribution Management Inc.	1972	Private	Wholesale	St. Charles	306
50	Youth In Need	1974	Nonprofit	Human and social services	St. Charles	354
51	World Finance	1962	Cooperative/Mutual	Financial services	Greenville, S.C.	156
52	ICL	1921	Public	Specialty minerals	Creve Coeur	329
53	Renewal by Andersen of St. Louis	2012	Private	Construction	Maryland Heights	175
54	Mid-America Trasnplant	1974	Nonprofit	Nonprofit	St. Louis	221
55	Bayless School District	1868	Public	Education	St. Louis	265
56	Together Credit Union	1939	Nonprofit	Financial services	St. Louis	382
57	Brewer Science Inc	1981	Private	Manufacturing and R&D	Rolla	477
58	City of Wentzville	1872	Government	Government	Wentzville	286

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Fenton-based ingredients supplier is a family-owned business that 'loves their people' - St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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