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With a few keystrokes, Chuck Eggert can tell you the exact hatch
date of the chickens that flavor a batch of organic soup on the
loading dock at Pacific Foods of Oregon.
He can tell you what those birds ate before they became broth.
He knows where every organic vegetable, grain, and herb that goes
into Pacific Foods's line of soups, broths, and nondairy drinks was
grown.
Eggert, 54, started Pacific Foods in 1987, 16 years after
graduating with one of Washington State University's first degrees
in food science.
Today, after another 16 years, Eggert remains at the Pacific
Foods helm as president and chief executive officer. On his
business cards he is Charles W. Eggert and has titles such as
"Director" or "Product Development." In casual conversation,
however, Chuck Eggert is "the simple solution person" and,
sometimes, "a meddler."
In some respects, the man who has been meddling in the food
industry since he was 16, when he landed a job at a frozen
vegetable plant in the Puget Sound area, now is among the pioneers
in his field.
Like plenty of CEOs, his business is making and selling food.
But what he really wants to make is a difference-"to show that it
can be done."
Eggert continues to cook up new recipes, to be sure, but he also
is turning his zeal toward a new conquest: becoming an
"environmentally neutral" company through aggressive recycling and
renewable energy.
After starting his career with traditional vegetable processors,
Eggert figures he has built Pacific Foods into one of the country's
top five privately held makers of natural and organic foods. The
company's 2001 sales were $43 million, according to Dun &
Bradstreet. Eggert won't discuss current sales figures, but says
sales continue to outstrip the red-hot natural food industry, which
swelled by 19 percent last year despite the faltering economy.
He credits Pacific Foods's success to vigilance for quality and
commitment to sustainable agriculture from the dirt of his organic
farm to the customer's dinner table.
"People are becoming more and more concerned with what they're
eating-as well they should," he says. "I think we're just on the
beginning edges of a huge nutritional transformation."
Making natural foods is a family affair. Father-in-law Edward
Lynch is cofounder and partner at Pacific Foods, wife Louanna
Eggert ('71 Education) is in charge of the family's winery, and
25-year-old son Charlie Eggert helps run its organic farm.
Pacific Foods's main plant could pass for a high-tech campus in
the Portland suburb of Tualatin. Although it's located in an
industrial area, Eggert's office overlooks restored wetlands. On a
spring day, Canada geese stand sentinel over their goslings, and a
hawk soars overhead. It seems a fitting place for an ultra-modern
company striving to bring customers a real taste of nature.
"A lot of the organic products we use just taste better," he
says. "Our soups and broths, in natural foods, are the industry
standards for flavor and quality."
When Eggert started Pacific Foods, he expected to make tofu, but
soon found an emerging market for soymilk. At the time, neither
product was a grocery store mainstay. "When we first started, if
you said 'tofu' or 'soymilk,' they'd look at you funny."
Today, Pacific Foods makes 170 products that line the shelves of
natural food stores and supermarket health food aisles from
Washington state to Washington, D.C.
Most of the products are sold in Tetra Pak aseptic containers,
similar to juice boxes. Eggert chose this type of packaging because
the laminated material protects food quality without preservatives
and is recyclable, like glass and metal, but its lighter weight
makes it convenient for consumers and uses less energy to ship.
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