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Ever Onward Podcast
The Ever Onward Podcast is your go-to business podcast, offering engaging discussions and diverse guests covering everything from business strategies to community issues. Join us at the executive table as we bring together industry leaders, experts, and visionaries for insightful conversations that go beyond the boardroom. Whether you're an entrepreneur or simply curious about business, our podcast provides a well-rounded experience, exploring a variety of topics that shape the business landscape and impact communities. Brought to you by Ahlquist.
Ever Onward Podcast
The Simplot Family's Impact on Industry & Community - John Otter | Ever Onward - Ep. 46
Join us as we unravel the fascinating legacy of J.R. Simplot through a heartfelt conversation with his grandson, John Otter. From the bustling potato fields of Idaho to the bustling streets of Washington, D.C., John's journey is rich with personal anecdotes and lessons from both the Simplot and Otter families. We'll reflect on how the pioneering spirit of J.R. Simplot transformed the potato industry, establishing a game-changing partnership with McDonald's that redefined fast-food supply chains globally. John offers a unique perspective on the values of perseverance and innovation that continue to guide the Simplot family and their global business ventures.
Our discussion culminates in a hopeful dialogue about the enduring values that drive success both personally and professionally. Together with our guests, we celebrate the principles of authenticity, community support, and hard work that have shaped Idaho's most influential figures and continue to inspire future generations. As we look to the future, there's a shared optimism grounded in the belief that by nurturing ourselves and our communities, we lay the foundation for a thriving and resilient America. Whether you're interested in family legacies, corporate strategy, or American values, this episode promises insights and inspiration that resonate far beyond Idaho.
Mark Cleverley sets the stage for this episode with our Ahlquist Update sharing his insights on the "flight to quality" phenomenon in today's corporate world. As companies strive to lure back their workforce post-COVID, the shift towards attractive, amenity-rich Class A office spaces becomes essential. Mark's observations highlight how these modern work environments are reshaping corporate culture and fostering employee satisfaction and retention. His expertise provides a thought-provoking backdrop to our exploration of the evolving nature of workspaces and their profound impact on the business landscape today.
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Today on our Ever On Word podcast, we have John Otter. John is on the board of directors at Simplot. He is the grandson of JR Simplot and son of Butch Otter. John has a long history of business at the Simplot company and recently moved back from Seattle where he worked for 31 years. He is the current director of Simplot, president of CBC and a president and chair of S16LP, which is a family real estate holding company for the Simplots. I'm really excited to talk to John about his family legacy and about the Simplot business. Prior to John, we will hear from Mark Cleverley for our AllQuest update. Mark Cleverley, back on the AllQuest update today. Hey, one of the things we want to talk about is you hear this term a lot flight to quality. Yeah, what does that mean to you?
Speaker 2:To me it means COVID. It's been interesting. Covid hits everybody, goes back to back home Companies, especially around here and nationally too, but they're trying to like begging their employees to come back Right, begging like, please come back. And in order to do that, they have to provide a really cool work environment. And so we've seen, we've been, so we've been lucky with that. Well, I don't know if it's lucky, but it's a lot of hard work put into it. But we build out really cool office spaces and Power Engineers we've talked about it before. We may have even talked about it on the podcast before, but they have an incredible office right and you see where they were at before and now you see their current office and now they're getting people back to work that flight to quality. If you provide a really cool office environment, people are coming back.
Speaker 1:People are coming back to the office, yeah, and so I think you'll see vacancy numbers in our market, but a lot of that.
Speaker 1:It will be interesting if the sub breakdown is second generation space versus new space or space that is second generation generation space that has been fully renovated because the whole idea is to create amenities around those employees, make them feel part of your corporate culture. They come to work every day. I like being here. I love my family, I love coming to work because it feels like my family, I have a great place to work. They want to be at work right and I think that's the quality that people are looking for in the market, because the commodity now and it's good for employees. You know, people have to recruit and retain their employees because that's the lifeblood of their business and so that in this investment I won't say who it is, but a few years ago we were doing a building for a guy and he's a great guy, but I remember walking into his, his office and looking at the conditions in which his people like the cubes they were in and thinking, oh, my word, how would you like to sit in this cube all day long?
Speaker 1:yeah, and it's interesting, we did the first building for him and he's like, oh, you know, cost, it's just, you know, you know, sardines in a in a box, and, and then and then, when he expanded, he had completely changed his mind too. Hey, we got. We got to figure out a way to make people want to be here. So flight quality is a big deal and I think that it'll be something to watch in the coming months and years here in Boise as more companies come here, and we're going to try to stay at the forefront of that.
Speaker 2:Yep and even vacancy numbers. You're seeing it in true Class A. It's tight in our market. There's not a lot of space. I mean we're 99% leased. In our last couple of vacancies we've got LOIs on.
Speaker 1:We're going to be 100% leased and so it's really, really tight for a true Class A space. You'll hear some of that. We have a lot of friends that are in other big markets. But even in San Francisco, even in Portland, seattle, they'll tell you some of the buildings that are well-amanitized, true class A product that people want to be at. They've done fine through this, they've done fine. And then there's just everyone else is getting drubbed. I mean it's just vacancy everywhere else.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:All right, thanks for coming on again, you bet.
Speaker 2:Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1:John Otter, thank you so much for coming on today.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 1:This will be fun. This will be really, really fun. So, first of all, you came on last minute for us. We were going to have you anyway. You're on our big board in there, and then Garrett I feel special. Garrett had his tooth pulled, so thank you for coming in short notice and this will be fun to get caught up. Tooth pulled. So, uh, thank you for coming in short notice and this will be fun to get caught up. Um so how is it having two of the most?
Speaker 3:famous names in the state of Idaho. That's where I'm going to start. You know, uh, when, um, when I was looking to go to school, my parents sat me down at the uh, at the kitchen table and I'm not mincing words at all and they said look, you're. You're in a unique situation in Idaho. Your middle name is Simplot, your last name is Otter. We strongly suggest you get out of town, if not out of the state, at least just to go to school. And so that's how I ended up in Seattle, and so for most of my career, I mean, then I graduated from the University of Puget Sound and my dad sits me down again and he says five years, don't come home for five years. Wow, did that make sense to you?
Speaker 1:Totally.
Speaker 3:It did Totally.
Speaker 1:Because you grow up as you know. So you're JR's grandson, Mm-hmm, You're Butch's son, and I mean this is about as like legacy loaded as it can get, so it made sense to you.
Speaker 3:Totally Get out and walk. I mean prove it. Prove it to others that you can do something and prove it to yourself that you can do something.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So five years turned into 31. And I got to move my family back in 2018, back to Boise, and it's great being home.
Speaker 1:Has it been great, mm-hmm, how old are your kids 10, 8 and 6 and 3 labs 3 labs, 11 chickens. We got a busy household uh, tell, tell me well before we get going a little bit. So you move back in 18. Molly is your wife. She's wonderful, um, and how has it been kind of coming home as you come. Come home, took your position at Simplot Company down at the headquarters there. Do you like being back in Idaho and Boise?
Speaker 3:Love it, love it. You know, seattle is great for that time in my life and, quite frankly, looking backwards, we moved out at the right time and, coming home, getting to be around family there's a little while there that people would come up and say hello to Molly and she's like, are we related? Because I tend to be related to a lot of people in Boise. So she thought, but Boise's welcoming, boise's awesome and it's a great place to raise children. And when it comes to Simplot, that was the number one reason why I moved back. It took me two years after I joined the board in 2015, coming home, going to see different operations around the world, around the United States, and just to see how we've evolved into a company. It's a family company. I mean, it's 16,000, roughly 16,000 employees strong, global, but everyone feels like they're part of the family and I get to try to make sure they feel like they're part of the family it's so big.
Speaker 1:It's so big it does so much talk. Can we, before we get into that though, um, how was it growing up here with your grandpa and and Simplot? Like just the growth and how it changed. But what was it like being his grandson in Boise, and did you know? Did you know what this thing was and and how it changed? But what was it like being his grandson in Boise, and did you know what this thing was and how was he as a man, Well, a lot of questions in there, so I'll start out with him.
Speaker 3:You know, I want to say he probably we probably saw, stood eye to eye about 5'10", but here's a guy that was bigger than life and you knew him when you walked in the room. You knew it and incredibly genuine, incredibly personable and he treated everyone very, very well. I mean, that's kind of why I get to do it today. And um and so we all, obviously we learned, we learned from that and to get to him, have him as my grandfather, I I didn't comprehend back then what it really meant and um and so, and given at the time my last name was Otter, people really didn't associate me with the Simplot company, so, or the Simplot family, so I kind of had that go. I didn't realize it then, but that was going in my favor, uh, and so I was just, you know, kid going to North Junior High, kid going to Boise High, for most Did you see him often.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, we got to spend a lot of time together. You know, there were a bunch of times whether I was in high school or I'd be home from college and I got to grow up in the house. My mom grew up on in Harrison Boulevard and 5.30, 6 o'clock in the morning this old man would be waking me up. We're still not sure how he got in the house, but he's like come on, let's go. And the deal was he'd take a nap and you'd drive and we'd go out and we'd look at farms, we'd look at french fry factories, cows, whatever it was, and he was able to spend a lot of time with me and all my cousins, which was fantastic. He had a lot of time for us, and so it was really special.
Speaker 1:Was his office at that time. Where Fork Restaurant is now the building by 8th and Main, is that where his office?
Speaker 3:was. That was before my time. My mother told me stories about watching the 4th of July parade from that office, but when I was growing up, it was in One Capital.
Speaker 1:Center, one Cap Center already.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and he was. He looked at what. The Northwest corner on the 13th floor.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So, boy, what. What a legend like in in of industry, of of just a visionary who just started these, this company, and just grew it.
Speaker 3:He took big risks. He took big risks and he wasn't afraid Micron's a perfect example but wherever he thought there might be some money in it, and that's why he started out with potatoes, even just shipping fresh potatoes to the East Coast from starting in the 30s, just whatever was next. Let's get more efficient. Let's leverage our assets to their max. But I always had an interest in seeing what else was out there. I mean, there were quite a few things he did that didn't work, but fortunately there were a few things that worked really well.
Speaker 1:What's the truth behind the McDonald's story and him becoming their supplier?
Speaker 3:Donald's story and him becoming their supplier. So he, you know it was a tough time after World War II. We were one of the major suppliers of dehydrated food to the front. I mean we've got original letters in our archives from soldiers at the front that say, you know, kind of brings tears to my eyes. It's just like, hey, you know, for the first time in a long time I feel like I'm at home eating your mashed potatoes.
Speaker 3:But after the war things got pretty skinny and they were looking for something else. What's next? And one of the guys that worked for them came to him and said here, try this plate of French fries. He's like, okay, great, they're great. What's the big deal? Well, they'd been frozen and we'd worked out a batch process to process a potato into something that you can ship frozen. Later on we created a line flow process and that was what 1948.
Speaker 3:So a long time between then and McDonald's. But he was able to grow the business through retail. We actually had a Simplot brand that was quite prominent, probably got about the same timing in the start as Orida did, but I think it took him about five years of knocking on Mr Kroc's door to say, hey, listen, you want consistency across all of your restaurants. Your burger's got the four pickles and the same amount of ketchup, and all that. Why wouldn't you want your fries the same way? Because back then McDonald's had a potato cellar and they made them much like Five Guys or In-N-Out Burger does today. They process the potato in the store.
Speaker 3:So we were able to take labor out of the store. We were able to add consistency and on a handshake, and we call it the golden handshake. We were able to add consistency and on a handshake, and we call it the golden handshake. He went out, borrowed, used his own money and built what we call Plant 2. And it was the first McFry factory in Caldwell in the world, and to hear my dad tell stories about it, it was just like that's all that mattered. We had to meet our deliveries to McDonald's no matter what, and that was just a test. Fortunately, it worked out. Fortunately for us, it worked out. Unfortunately for the industry it worked out and it just grew from there so incredible, so incredible, amazing.
Speaker 1:It's just, it's just incredible. And so before we get to dad a little bit, but so so growing his business from from an ag business kind of potatoes is kind of how, but then it goes into all these other verticals that you guys have created around the world. Again, 16 000 employees um, when did that really take off?
Speaker 3:That really took off. It was basically out of need, world War II, excuse me. There were a lot of things you couldn't get and so we had to. We had to create our own crates. We had to build our own crates, so we got into the lumber business. We had to get our employees to the factory, so we got into the busing business, get our employees to the factory, so we got into the busing business. And we got into the fertilizer business, because you couldn't get fertilizer. So we helped build a factory in Pocatello and there was a mine it's called the Gay Mine, named after my mother, and the plant is the Dawn plant named after my uncle, and that got us into the phosphate business and it slowly grew from there and and so that's what's got.
Speaker 3:It got us into agriculture, I mean into into what we call agribusiness. Today we've got two mines, one in vernal utah, one outside of afton, wyoming, and these are the kind of mines, that where you've got those trucks that are two stories tall that you climb into, and in shovels that are almost as big as your building here, and we're just able to help the farmer out that way when we end up with a pile of pieces of potato and potato skins. It's like what do we do with this? It's pretty gross when it comes down to it. Do we build a giant starch treatment plant and spend a lot of money on that?
Speaker 3:Or maybe we could get into the cattle business and change that energy into something that we do know how to, how to manage and, uh, to hear my dad tell the story, it was like we should do this as long as we don't really get into it, and that was really tough for my granddad to not really get into it. So today, that's what we've got. Uh, we've got two feedlots, one in grandview, idaho, and one in pasco, washington, combined about a 250 000 head of cattle I've been able to see.
Speaker 1:See those, they're massive. I mean just the fact that that industry again, I didn't know the backstory, but incredible food delivery. I mean like the idea that idaho feeds the world and Idaho agriculture and agriscience really is what's driven so much of American economy and culture. It's true, and it was from your grandfather's company, born right here.
Speaker 3:Right, it's everybody coming up with ideas and not afraid. And I get asked a lot are we ever going to go public? And there's two things that, as long as I'm around, I'm not going to allow happen. One is going public and one is to invite private equity into uh to help us out. Uh, and I say that because when you're, when you're when you're public, you've got to meet a quarterly deadline, a quarterly number that's.
Speaker 3:Then an analyst that doesn't live in your town thinks that you need to make and your people are compensated on it. Mot that doesn't live in your town thinks that you need to make and your people are compensated on it. Motivations are different, but being private, it's our money. We can risk it, and there have been a lot of things we've risked our money on that we didn't get a return. On Some things that we're working on today, we probably won't see something for another 20, 30 years, but that's the way we get to think, and so it's that mindset that allows us to go out and someone comes up with a good idea where we can run with it.
Speaker 1:It's awesome. Can we switch over to Butch?
Speaker 3:Sure, is he going to listen to this.
Speaker 1:He never listens to these because I've talked about him on these a couple times and I got to get him on. I saw him last week. I saw him down in Eagle. He was at a fundraiser for College of Idaho and he looks good. He looks really good. He probably wouldn't mind me telling everyone, but he had open heart surgery. But he is a tough guy, john.
Speaker 1:I had open heart surgery and he was like five weeks out and he was giving me this big bear hug and showing me his scar and pulling my shirt down so he could look at my scar. I mean, I just loved that guy. But tell us a little bit about him, your dad, and just what a wild ride it must have been having him as your dad.
Speaker 3:Well, hopefully he'll come on and tell you his story, but I can give you a little bit. His dad was a journeyman electrician 12 cent an hour. He followed where he could find work or build a church. My dad and my grandfather and my uncles helped build the original Catholic church in McCall council. There might be a couple more in there, but dad's growing up he might as well have been in the military for as much as he moved around. They were farmers, they were dairy people as well and they were tough. They were really tough, and so when I grew up in his household I was made tough as well. I think I mean I'm kind of a candy ass compared to him, but I have an appreciation for him.
Speaker 1:He's got to listen now.
Speaker 3:Oh, what was he like? You know he was fair, he was stern, he was. We were all disciplined and it was really impressed upon me by him and my granddad that my gosh, you've got to work. You've got to work twice as hard as the next guy. And that was kind of a chip I had on my shoulder when I left home and went to school in Washington and ended up working for a company called Expeditors International no one's going to outwork me in hours or coming up with ideas or whatever and that's something that he really impressed upon me. But we also had a lot of fun hunting and doing outdoor stuff.
Speaker 3:He's, as you know, he's a cowboy, and so he's a cowboy you know I'm doing logistics now for my, my son's first deer hunt and I'm like you know there's too many variables things. You got to pull together and here he did it with, you know, a seven horse or seven mule train yeah where we go out in the middle of nowhere with, uh, cast iron d Dutch ovens and that kind of stuff. And it was kind of the old way. He loves that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:Oh, at the end of the day he's a cowboy. He did a whole bunch of other incredible stuff. He's just a cowboy. So he worked at Simplot Company 30 years almost 29 years, 30 years and then, so a big part of his career and a lot of great stories there. But but, um, when did he, when did you first hear of him getting in politics and what did you think? How old were you when he started doing that?
Speaker 3:well, I have a picture of me and the statesman when I was probably one little over one year years old one year old, uh, in a backpack, uh, worn by my mom, and he was in the state legislature then. Now I didn't really know that, but that's how long he's been at it, but for me it wasn't until he ran for governor in 1977. And so we had the Otter Mobile Campaign Headquarters motorhome and got to trounce around the state and we had floats and parades and all that and he came in third in a five-way race. I'm gonna get that wrong. He's gonna get mad at me, I'm kidding, um, but uh, but then again in 1986, when we ran for lieutenant governor uh, that was, that was another time. Uh, that, that right, I really understand. He won and and he loved it. He got such a passion for it and it's such a deep passion for Idaho, yeah.
Speaker 1:And that's something that was ingrained in me as well that deep passion for Idaho and then he goes to DC, mm-hmm, yep.
Speaker 3:So yeah, that was kind of his stepping stone. He always wanted to be governor and so when he was able to run for Congress got to go spend six years in Washington DC and he got there and I got to visit him a few times, I got to shadow him. It was amazing. You know, I have a pass that was a family pass. They make these so that you can flash your badge to get into one of the Capitol buildings. It says I'm a family member, you don't have to go through the metal detector.
Speaker 3:I still did if they really wanted me to, but I kind of had carte blanche access of the Capitol building so I'd walk, I'd take friends, I got to give tours of the US Capitol House floor and go in off hours in the rotunda and go up stairways. In fact, on George Bush's inauguration his first inauguration W's I've used that pass and I worked my way to the podium where he had previously did, the day before I'd taken the oath of office. I mean, look at me, look, how do I get to do these kinds of things? But he loved it until he didn't love it. And when? You know when, when the true politics come through and the true I don't know the nature of human nature, I guess sets in and people want to get different things done and they've got different motives that they're not quite telling you about. That's when he started to become disillusioned with, with Washington DC. Yeah, and I would tell as I've and I don't know.
Speaker 1:As you know, I consider him a dear friend and I love the guy mentor, but he's not really. He is an authentic Idaho neighbor, friend cowboy. He is not a politician, which might sound crazy for a guy that spent so much time in there, but you can just see and talk to him now how the partisanship and some of the games that go on now just drive him crazy, Because when he was there it was about what can I do for Idaho families and it's so dang sincere and genuine. And he talks about those times back there and how he made a difference and how he made a difference in our state. The legacy of him around the state is is also just intense. I mean, everyone thinks they're his best friend.
Speaker 1:Right, right, right, like no matter where you go, like you to the littlest town around this thing and if he walks in that room, people light up and he hugs them and embraces them. It makes it feel like you're his long-lost friend. Whether you're a little widow in Genesee or you're Lieutenant Governor Bedke, it doesn't matter, you're not wrong.
Speaker 3:You're not wrong.
Speaker 1:And it's real, isn't it? Well, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 3:You're not wrong and it's real, isn't it? Well, it's very real. I mean, he feels it. He's a cowboy, he's a rancher, he spent 30 years in the Simplot Company, really truly learning agriculture and, as I quote him, I love to sell groceries, so now I can do it for Idaho. But yeah, and it's funny, we have an excuse to take a road trip somewhere and have to stop and get gas. You know, I'll just stand on the sidelines while he gets to go around the room. And people are just. They love him, want him back.
Speaker 1:It's cool. Yeah, he's again. I got to see him last week and it was honestly it was funny because I got in the car and I had to call my wife on the way home and she said, how was it? I said it was awesome because I got to see Butch and it just, he just, it's just the coolest thing to just embrace him. And been through a lot the last few years too Age does that to you and riding too many, riding too many horses and being pretty rough on your body, but he's, he looks fantastic. Well, that's great. Um, talk a little bit about um, if, if, I can bug you a little bit. Lessons learned. Uh, I mean, you got a pretty unique pedigree here, bud.
Speaker 1:We just spent we just spent a bunch of time talking about PR Simplot and, uh, butch Otter, and, and, and, and I I get the family name thing and I and I do think, like your story of, hey, I'm going to go away for five years and 31 years later you're back it was probably important for you to make your own way. What did you learn from them, though? I mean, what would you tell our listeners? The lessons learned from legends in Idaho?
Speaker 3:You know it's not rocket science, you know it's just be yourself, be genuine, work hard, work harder, work hard to give something more than you're getting back. It was true with my granddad, it was true with my dad, through and through. I mean, they were both tough, they were both hard, they both lived. I mean, you and I live in this day and age. Then they didn't have the technology, they didn't have a lot of the things that we have today, but they were both very much about working hard and giving out, giving more whether it's money or labor or efforts or whatever than it was that they took.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. Tell us about your family a little bit your kids.
Speaker 3:It's another area. I'm blessed, I'm very blessed, my wife Molly, from New Hampshire. Her dad was a governor as well, from New Hampshire. That's why the couple that set us up at their wedding in Sun Valley thought that we might get along. And what's funny is and I think you might appreciate this that when we both were introduced we both thought we were going to meet another entitled politician's kid. And then it turns out that New Hampshire and Idaho values stack up pretty darn close, a lot of other ways that we stack up very close. And her family is absolutely wonderful and come through the same mentality as we do. And you know we moved to Boise and I told her not to buy this big house built in 1891. And of course, what did we do? And spent three years remodeling it and you know it's a high-profile house and I didn't know that I really wanted that.
Speaker 1:But people complain when the it's beautiful, though. You guys did an amazing job with it.
Speaker 3:Thank you. Well, it's all her, if you can see it, it's her wallpaper. You know, I did the speakers and the wall and the Internet.
Speaker 3:You did the mechanical room with that copper piping. Yeah well, this part of the geothermal heat that's on Warm Springs, but yeah, another cool thing. But we're blessed. We've got three kids. They're all fantastic 10, 8, and 6, boy and two girls. They're going to Riverstone International School and they love it. They love Boise, my son's into hockey, Daughter's into ballet and the third one we're still trying to get her into something.
Speaker 1:She's little enough that she doesn't have to be quiet yet, but we're pushing.
Speaker 3:That's great. Is it good being back around family too? Yeah, it's great about being around family. You know, I have an aunt that lives next door, another aunt that lives one way down the street, another one that lives further down Warm Springs, and just have the cousins and everybody all around. It's helped welcome me back.
Speaker 3:But you know the other thing I probably should have said this earlier. You know, wall Street Journal did a nice write-up for Boise a couple weeks ago, yes, and some might say, oh gosh, you know, please quit telling the world what we're like here. And it was great because we both got friends that got nice write-ups and nice mentions in restaurants and that kind of stuff. But the one thing that I didn't like that they wrote is something that I've observed for the last 30 years since I moved away and come back and visit is that people still take the time to no, not just take the time make the hard effort to establish eye contact when you're walking down the street, when you're walking down the green belt, just so they can say hello, yeah, that's it, and that hasn't changed.
Speaker 1:No, and you hear it from people that come visit or move here. They're just like is there, is everyone like, like, I think it's part of our heritage, right, that it's just the way you treat people and that kindness, and it's an incredible thing. Um, can, can I? Can I shift back to business now? Sure you're here, um, the headquarters here, uh, thankfully, downtown boise, the world headquarters. Talk a little bit about Simplot internationally now, because it's around the world. How hard is that to manage. How do you guys keep that as a privately held company that's just massive with a pretty efficient leadership structure, right here out of Boise?
Speaker 3:So my granddad always had a saying. He had a lot of sayings, but this was one of his favorite ones and it was just hire good people and turn them loose. And that's one of the reasons why he was so successful and that we've grown so much as we have today. And so my dad was the first president of Simple On International. In fact, I brought him in a couple months ago to talk to the people who are running it. Now it was him, it was me and I got a part-time account.
Speaker 3:He just spent time flying around the world figuring out where we could build another French fry factory. We've had to do that because, like a lot of industries, it's gone from a regional to a national to now. It's a global marketplace, and we've got factories in Australia, south America and Mendoza. We just finished a factory in India. We're about ready to remodel a factory outside of Beijing, china and Canada. We've got a French fry factory there, not to mention four here in the United States, and the ability to be able to service a customer from two different hemispheres and several corners of the world is becoming a competitive advantage. So we've got a customer in Malaysia that needs a french fry that's normally produced in Moses Lake, washington. For some reason we can't handle that. Perhaps Mendoza will be able to fill that bill. I don't know that our competitors can do that, but if they work hard enough they can. But I think it's something that's one of our major strengths.
Speaker 1:What are different governments like around the world to work with? And I mean it's just, you know, you think of people listening to this Like it's just, it's so big, like you're dealing with countries and imports and exports and tariffs and just.
Speaker 3:Well, that's again. We've got great people that are understanding the nuances around all of that. In fact, we've got people that are focused on that on the presidential election. We're not going to get of that. In fact, we've got people that are focused on that on the presidential election. We're not going to get into that, but to try to figure out, try to get ahead of whatever changes that might be made that'll impact us.
Speaker 3:When it comes to dealing with governments, it varies. Some are stable, some are well, they're all stable, but they change hands often. Argentina is one of them. Brazil we're not in Brazil, but they're a neighbor of ours now and they're a market of ours, and so we definitely have to work around those kind of changes and, so far at least, our presence, our industry's presence in those countries isn't something bigger like soybeans or corn, so we've kind of remained under the fray, but it is something that we've got people on the ground, people here in the us that that help us manage, manage through all that, wow talk about um research because I know when bill was there he talked a lot about not only is it just business and being on the cutting edge of business and efficiency, but it's also cutting edge of agri-science, really across all of your verticals, trying to be on the leading edge there and reinvesting so that you can have the next great thing in strawberries or whatever.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you're not wrong, I'm very excited about what we're doing with French fries and different cuts and batters and new factories and techniques and those kind of things. But to me, our tip of the spear is exactly what you just described. It's millions of little plants and Petri dishes and plantlets and different generations of potatoes. And we came out with a potato about seven, eight years ago that's genetically modified and we spent 20 years developing it. We came out into a market where no one likes genetically modified foods. Couldn't find very many customers for it, or farmers to grow it for that matter, but it's a potato.
Speaker 3:We call it the innate potato, and we call it innate because, instead of adding genes to this potato, we were able to just shut a couple genes off, and so this potato doesn't bruise as easily when you slice and dice it. One of the biggest things when you slice and dice it, it doesn't turn dark, which will save billions of pounds a year. You know, think of back-to-back restaurants and you know how much waste that they have to. Oh shoot, I didn't get to it in time, I got to throw that out. And I also joke that we solved the Irish potato famine because this potato is late blight resistance, which is what the cost for the middle 1800s was in Ireland, and so we've got a lot of things that we're working on to, you know, make a potato that can grow in different climates. We've been able to help some.
Speaker 1:Why does GMO or get such a rap and organic. I've got some friends that are big farmers and they think it's just all crap.
Speaker 3:They think it's like you said we weren't going to talk about politics.
Speaker 1:No, we'll stay away from that. It's just interesting to me, right, because they'll laugh and they'll say the definition of organic and how it gets there, and GMO and all this other stuff. They're just like it's all kind of smoke and mirrors because it's all made to be efficient, exactly, and it's all kind of a race to find out efficiencies and it's all healthy, right? It's not.
Speaker 3:Exactly, exactly the first genetically modified foods that came out in the 1990s corn, mainly around corn, and soybeans some of our biggest industries or commodities in the country came out and I think people were probably jealous. They were a bit unsure. Maybe if you're a competitor to Monsanto you're not sure about those kind of things, but it really got a groundswell movement against it. You're not sure about those kind of things, but it really got a groundswell movement against it. And people who came out with these products I don't think handled it, or maybe they didn't feel like they had to handle it from a PR standpoint, and so they let a lot of these rumors et cetera oh it's not healthy. Oh it's going to work your own genes, you know humans are going to turn out somehow different after eating it.
Speaker 3:I mean, I've heard it all. You know a pollen wafts over from one farmer and lands on another farmer. All of a sudden they're growing that corn and then Monsanto comes in and sues them. Show me those kind of lawsuits. You know I'm highly confident that they didn't happen, but it just got a bad rap. And so you know there's a poll a couple years ago that said something like 30% of scientists think that it might hurt you and 80% of people thought it would hurt you. But in the last couple of years it's starting to switch. Yeah, I mean you start if you take a hard look at certain products and their ingredient statement and we have to call it out. We should call it out. People have got to know what what they're eating.
Speaker 1:Um, they've quietly snuck some products in there and those products haven't skipped a beat. Yeah, that's awesome. Um, what are, uh, so? So the verticals you have here locally, um, in in the valley? Talk about idaho a little bit, because you've got big plants and caldwell. What are, what are the big employers here in Idaho that still impact the Idaho economy in a great way, even though you're an international company?
Speaker 3:so our probably our flagship store, flagship plant, would be Caldwell, because that's where everything, everything got started. It's a billion pound factory and it was a little testament to us and again thinking about outside the box. But Caldwell we built, we finished this one in 2014 and it replaced three factories 1200 people shrunken down in one factory and probably about three to four hundred people. We gave people three years notice, we helped them with job training and if you want to do something that didn't have anything to do with our industry, we'll help you out with that and also job placement, and some we hired. We hired, but those are factories from all over the state. But now we had 700 million pounds not enough, so we added another 300 million pounds and if you drive out there, you'll see we're the tallest building in Canyon County.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, nine-story tall freezer, is that a freezer? Yeah, yeah, is that a freezer? Yeah, yeah, it's called a high bay freezer and the freezer it's a low oxygen environment, which means that we don't have to deploy a fire suppression system. You build the racking first, build the skin around it, freeze everything down, and inside it's all computers and robots, and any time somebody has to go in there they've got to put in a regulating mask and go in and do their work. But most of it's know hands-free and um, and so there's Caldwell. I'm trying to I'm good at getting off on tangents, but so, uh, uh. So there's Caldwell. We also just recently acquired the Ontario tater tot factory.
Speaker 3:Okay, and we were, we were able to to fix that up. It's an old, older factory. Reminds me when I was a kid, but uh, and then we've got brand view, the feedlot, yeah, and then pocatello. Uh, we've got that's our phosphate factory, and that is at the end of a 90 mile pipe from our smoky canyon mine. That is just outside of afton, wyoming. So in wyoming we dig up this. We dig up, we crush it and we mix it with water and we've got these giant pumps that push it through. It's about an 8 or 9-inch pipe that goes 90 miles to the factory. So no rail, no trucks, and to me it's a competitive advantage, at least within the region. But again, thinking outside the box, how can we do it better?
Speaker 1:That's incredible. It's just incredible. Can we switch to philanthropy, mm-hmm, because I think for your legacy, part of the legacy of both these family names is just what they've given back, mm-hmm, and talk about how important that's been to Simplot and to Otter?
Speaker 3:It's incredibly important. We're set up so that we can support we're fortunate enough to be able to support the communities in which we are in. You know, whether you're in Portage, La Prairie, Manitoba, Grand Forks, North Dakota, Caldwell, Idaho, Boise, we're able to support, whether it's the local baseball team, all the way up to the College of Idaho, College of Western Idaho, and it's something that we're very, very proud to be able to give back and have a meaningful, really meaningful impact.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know, I know you, probably you're the go-to for almost everything, but it's like it's so nice to have a idaho, uh grown company that's still here, that's still private and still gives back, like you do like, to every significant thing that happens in the community. Uh, it's just it's got to make you super proud, absolutely. I mean that, that you're able to do that with the. You know, the best part of making money is giving back, and I think Simplot is just a shining example of that.
Speaker 3:We do it while trying to remain humble.
Speaker 1:Yeah, can you talk a little bit about Jump? For those that may not know the story behind Jump, I'd love to have you tell that. Yeah, sure.
Speaker 3:So Jump. My granddad had a vision before he passed to build an agriculture museum and you know that's one of the reasons why he bought all those tractors In fact, one of the few days in his lifetime where he indulged and he got to buy I don't know the actual number, but it's 100 and some old tractors, and only a couple of them are. We've got a few steam engines, only a few of them have rubber tires. And things changed after he passed and so that vision morphed into JUMP For those that don't know, jack's Urban Meeting Place, which is in downtown Boise, and for that it was about learning, about bringing people, community, together, but also about risk and community. You've held events there and it's central to downtown. People can go and have a yoga class, a cooking class or hold a cooking class. But also those slides, that five-story slide is about taking risk, and so that's how we were able to put his personality and what he's done into kind of one place.
Speaker 1:It's beautiful. We just held our Inspire Excellence Awards and we hosted there every year just last week and it's just always such a great place to go. And being there by the world headquarters and that block, world headquarters in that block uh, you got to think sometimes what you know how proud he'd be of of of that facility and and what it's done to downtown and when it came into downtown, you know you look at downtown now and it's so. I mean it's just different than it was I think about 20 years ago when we did eighth main and the hole and it's when jump was going in and it there was a lot. You know it wasn't straightforward that boise was going to become what it became. But um, it's when Jump was going in and there was a lot. You know it wasn't straightforward that Boise was going to become what it became. But it's so nice down there now to go walk those streets and be part of that community.
Speaker 1:It's incredible.
Speaker 3:It's awesome People still want to look you in the eye too, right.
Speaker 1:They do. Well, this was awesome. I really, really appreciate what you guys do and thank you so much for what you do. And and uh, it's gonna, it's gonna be great for people to hear from you and simplot, and and uh, and just the future, what is, what is the future? Uh, look like to you and your, your mind, with america and idaho and the company and you, you're pretty optimistic I'm always optimistic.
Speaker 3:You, you know, america was created on individual perseverance and individual freedom. And you know, take care of yourself, take care of your family, take care of your neighbor, and as long as we continue to have that, we're going to, we're going to thrive. We're going to thrive big time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that. What a great way to end this. Take care of yourself, take care of your family, take care of your neighbor. That's where America was born. Thanks, john, appreciate it, thanks.