Company founder to speak on expansion in Albert Lea
Published 12:00 am Saturday, March 1, 2008
The Albert Lea Business & Professional Women&8217;s Club announces Pam Sander of Zumbro River Brand Inc. will speak at noon Wednesday at the Ramada Inn in Albert Lea.
Sander, who holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Harvard and who founded Zumbro River Brand with her husband, Gene, will speak about the company and why they chose Albert Lea for their expansion.
Sander came into the contract food processing business in 1983 when her husband bought a creamery in Dodge County near Oslo. They operated Innovative Food Processors and Zumbro Inc., which manufactured food ingredients, until 2000, when those companies were sold.
In 2002, Zumbro River Brand, one of the original Sander companies, was reactivated in a 1940s Borden milk drying plant in Owatonna. ZRB produces snacks and cereals by a special process called extrusion. In 2006, ZRB came to Albert Lea to expand operations in the former Natural Biologics plant in the North Industrial Park. In April 2008, the company will mark one year of operations at the Albert Lea plant.
Pam Sander&8217;s background includes a stint at GPC in Muscatine, Iowa, where her work is reflected in eight patents on corn starch and soy protein processing.
&8220;I&8217;ve had the most fun, though, in the last 25 years watching employees self-actualize and watching products that our company developed succeed in the market,&8221; she said.
More information about the company is available at www.zumbroriverbrand.com.
Lunch will be a French dip sandwich with fries and beverage for $10 per person. People can pay at the door, the club encourages people to RSVP to Nancy VanderWaerdt, Albert Lea BPW president, at 377-0227.