Dyer grew up in a small downstate city close to Springfield and as a young person labored on native farms. He earned two school levels earlier than becoming a member of Lawrence Meals in Elk Grove Village, a maker of fruit fillings and toppings for bakery items discovered at Jewel and different shops. In eight years there, he superior by a succession of promotions to vp of operations.
CEO Marc Lawrence recollects that “Matt was an empathetic chief. He may have interaction with older personnel, with a lot of expertise right here, working beneath him and put that have to good use.”
Lawrence says that Dyer has pursued the correct technique in constructing Amerikoa (Hawaiian warriors had been known as koa).
As a substitute of attempting to underprice different commodity sugar giants, like Sucro Sourcing in Florida, Dyer determined to focus on specialty merchandise—natural and non-GMO commodities—whereas conserving his overhead low. That meant renting surplus warehouse house from companions like Sucro. Huge new accounts, like Ferrara Sweet in Chicago, signed on as clients in brief order. Amerikoa is the most important distributor of natural sugar within the U.S.
Not too long ago, Dyer joined with main investor Sucro in shopping for the belongings of Marigold, a sweetener distributing firm in College Park final yr, and is increasing it into manufacturing product extensions like powdered sugar and liquid sugar.
Amerikoa is managing business gross sales for Sucro’s new $30 million sugar plant opening in two weeks in Buffalo, N.Y.—seemingly the primary new sugar processing facility within the nation previously 50 years or extra.
Dyer has additionally fashioned a sideline known as Amerikoastal Ventures as a car to purchase up e-commerce companies. Amerikoastal has purchased Imperial Meals in Glen Ellyn, a wholesaler of reward baskets; Biedermann & Sons, a vendor of candleholders and ornaments primarily based in Northlake; and a 75% stake in Candy Secrets and techniques Chocolate in Carol Stream, a maker of chocolate pretzels and snacks offered by Macy’s and different locations. All three companies now have been relocated into their mother or father firm’s 65,000-square-foot Melrose Park headquarters.
There may be loads of alternative to do extra offers,” says B.J. Fawley, a minority investor in Amerikoa and government vp. “Many small-business house owners have aged to the purpose they’re prepared for retirement. These are individuals who typically have had the same imaginative and prescient to ours.”
Fawley and Dyer collectively put up lower than $1 million, plus the fairness in their very own homes, to start out Amerikoa some 30 months in the past, Fawley says. The pandemic was a double-edged sword. “Our timing couldn’t have been extra terrifying, or extra excellent,” he says. “There was chaos in meals markets, and it’s in instances like that that alternatives open up.”
