Nothum consolidates production after acquisition

When Robert Nothum’s father died of COVID-19 in 2021, he and his brothers, Ryan and Brad, lost some of the enthusiasm that had powered the family business, Nothum Food Processing Systems, since its founding in 1971, Nothum said.

“It just kind of changed everything, I guess,” he said.

Nothum was founded by another Robert Nothum – the grandfather of Robert, Ryan and Brad. Robert Nothum Jr., the trio’s dad, ran the company next.

The business – Nothum called it a wonderful one – deserved to be taken to the next level, but he and his brothers knew that would mean a lot of time away from home, as it meant early in their careers.

“I just was not willing to be away from my family that much again,” he said.

In April 2024, Nothum and his brothers decided to sell.

Nothum said they did their research before selling to Bettcher Industries Inc., a longstanding meat producer based in Birmingham, Ohio. Bettcher was owned by The Woodlands, Texas-based Fortifi Food Processing Solutions, which provides automation solutions for the food industry, and Fortifi in turn was owned by KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE: KKR), one of the world’s largest private equity firms, with a market cap of $85.3 billion, according to Wall Street Journal data of Feb. 25. KKR is based in New York City.

Nothum said he and his brothers remained in place continuing to run the business until July 31, 2025, and they have been retained as advisers, though they are no longer involved in day-to-day business.

It’s a big change for Robert Nothum, who said these days he spends his time volunteering at an overnight shelter and serving as a volunteer school bus driver while also focusing on his health, because he said he would like to be around for a long time.

Enter Philip Hurwitz, formerly the Atlanta-based sales director of Nothum Food Processing Systems. On Aug. 1, 2025, Hurwitz became Nothum’s vice president and general manager.

Hurwitz went from selling Nothum products – they make stainless steel equipment used in predusting, battering and breading frozen foods, primarily chicken – to running the entire operation, including the Springfield plant, now a single facility where all production is based. There is also a sales office in the Netherlands, he said.

Hurwitz said there are efficiencies to getting everyone in one place in a single manufacturing plant.

“Just aside from the sheer time and dollars it takes to move things between buildings, having a one-piece flow in the process is tremendous for us,” he said.

The company prides itself in making machines that can handle very fine flour or coarse crumbs and anything in between, according to its website.

Production floor
A tour of the factory, offered by Hurwitz on Feb. 25, showed a tidy manufacturing floor with employees cutting, shaping, welding and polishing components, all of which are geared toward food production.

Hurwitz said Fortifi is committed to taking its manufacturing to the next level.

“The food industry has been slower to adopt automation and technology in their processes,” he said “Fortifi is committed to driving that change in the industry.”

Hurwitz said chicken is a huge percentage of Nothum’s business – about 80% of its business is centered on chicken.

“That matches what the market is – 80% of the breaded, fried food that we consume is chicken,” he said.

Most products that go through Nothum equipment are breaded and fried – not only chicken, but things like mozzarella sticks.

According to Hurwitz, the products Nothum contributes to are somewhat recession-proof. He calls products that are made with Nothum equipment comfort foods.

Hurwitz said he gives tours of the plant to customers quite often.

“People like seeing their equipment being built,” he said. “Being built in the United States still matters to people in the United States, so it’s nice for them to be able to see that 100% of it is.”

Hurwitz is enthusiastic about the product, and he said he leads many tours through the plant – still a salesperson at heart. Not every item can be photographed – some are proprietary – but Hurwitz is enthusiastic when he explains products and processes.

In other words, he had the spark that Robert Nothum was looking for.

Nothum feels good about the hands his family’s company are in.

“It’s been a blessing for our family, and I think it’s been a blessing for Nothum,” he said. “I hope everyone is very successful in a lot of ways.”

He said he and his brothers chose to sell to KKR because the parent company allows employee ownership in all of its businesses.

“Their goal is to build the business and eventually sell it again,” he said. “When that happens, everyone will participate in that transaction monetarily.”

Nothum said the brothers wanted to make sure the entire team was well taken care of when they left.

“We didn’t want them to come in and gut our business,” he said. “They did a really good job of not just taking care of our team, but they’ve helped train and lift or team. It’s a win-win.”

New headquarters
Nothum not only has new leadership – for the first time, not a member of the Nothum family. The company also has a newly renovated and expanded HQ at 3039 E. Pythian St.

In it, Nothum has consolidated all of its U.S. operations – consisting of several facilities in and around Springfield – under one roof with a 92,000-square-foot Springfield headquarters. The move was completed in early February.

Hurwitz said work on the new facility will be entirely finished in the second week of April, with the completion of some customer-facing spaces. Manufacturing and office areas are finished, he said.

With its stainless steel products, Nothum’s expansion shores up its contribution to the region’s identity as a top 25 food manufacturing center, according to a ranking released in September 2025 by Global Location Strategies.

Consolidating U.S. operations under one roof is intended to increase capacity and efficiency, according to a Feb. 10 news release from Nothum. Staffing the facility will be some 115 Nothum employees, 50 of them on the manufacturing floor.

Through Nothum’s focus on continuous improvement, customers will receive all-encompassing packages from a single location, the release states. Nothum customers can test equipment, see their machines in production and perform factory acceptance testing in one place before shipment to their factory.

The new facility also enables Nothum to remain in Springfield, where the company was founded and has had its home for more than half a century.

Nothum’s new headquarters highlights productivity and planned growth, the release states, noting dual highway access points facilitate shipping and receiving, while energy-saving options focus on sustainability.

The announcement adds that the facility will attract and welcome new employees and assist the company in increasing its community involvement.

According to past Springfield Business Journal reporting, the 42,000-square-foot addition to Nothum’s existing building cost $8 million. The project included 12,000 square feet of new office space to include an expanded employee breakroom, multiple conference rooms and an open office area, plus an additional production plant of 30,000 square feet with new shipping and receiving bays.

The professional team for the project included architect OzMo LLC, general contractor Construct Cos. LLC and engineers Own Inc., civil; RTM Engineering Consultants LLC, structural; and Jennifer Winslow PE LLC, mechanical, electrical and plumbing.

Performance
Hurwitz would not disclose revenue figures for the private company, and neither would Robert Nothum – he has signed a nondisclosure agreement, he said.

But Nothum offered some insight into company growth and performance, noting that at the time of the sale, it had better than 20% growth year over year.

“We were clicking along pretty well,” he said.

Nothum knew different times for the company, like when it went through Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the 1980s.

Nothum first came to work at the plant officially in 2003, and in 2008, he said they almost lost everything again.

“We were down to eight employees total,” he said. “We were fully leveraged, we had sold some personal properties and we weren’t getting paid.”

The company was on the brink of closing, but the Nothum family decided they were not giving up, he said.

“We were able to turn things around and quickly become completely debt free,” he said. “Prior to the sale, everything in that business was in cash. We didn’t take on any debt after we got out of debt. It’s a great way to run a business – it alleviates stress, and we can bless our team and take care of our company and people.”

SBJ wrote a business spotlight story on Nothum in 2008. At the time, it reported a 2007 revenue of $3 million, with projections of $3 million to $4 million in 2008.

Nothum’s dad is quoted in the story as saying he’d like to be between $10 million and $12 million in the next five years or so.

“I can tell you we were north of $10 million by quite a bit,” his son said.

Hurwitz did offer some metrics, however. He said over a million pounds a day go through the factory, which is experiencing 10%-20% growth year over year. Nothum Food Processing Systems brings least one new product per year to the market, but it is always working on multiple products at one time.

“You always have to give customers something new,” he said.