Sokol and Company has operated as a family owned provider of baking ingredients for more than 100 years, and its Solo brand was launched in the 1920s.

Although Sokol and Company has been in business for more than 100 years, the family owned food ingredients business continues to bring a fresh perspective to the market with each passing generation. A robust R&D department is able to turn new projects around quickly, a competent operations staff carefully procures the right ingredients for the right prices, skilled production personnel convert ingredients to finished product and a solid sales force works diligently to keep consumers aware of unique attributes that set the company apart, CEO John S. Novak Jr. says.

The founder of the company, Novak’s great-grandfather John A. Sokol, immigrated to Chicago from Pilsen, Bohemia, and started his career as a grocery delivery boy at the age of 14. Having learned the ins and outs of the business, he opened his first grocery store in 1895. By 1902, he added three more stores. When his investment in a Mexican coffee plantation ended with the start of the Mexican Revolution in 1910, Sokol returned to the Windy City to start a wholesale coffee, tea and spice business. He incorporated Sokol and Company in 1907.

In the 1920s, Sokol launched the Solo line of food products, which primarily consisted of cake and pastry fillings made from prunes and European-imported poppy seeds. Today, Solo Foods manufactures several baking ingredients under the Solo, Bakers, Chun’s and Simon Fischer brands, some of which were obtained through company acquisitions. Its products include nut- and fruit-based cake, pastry and dessert fillings, almond paste, marzipan, marshmallow cream, fruit butters, Asian dipping sauces and marinades, seasoned coating mixes, hot fudge toppings and anchovy paste.

After Sokol’s death in 1943, his son-in-law John F. Novak took over the company. Theresa Sokol Novak, the founder’s daughter, became president in 1952 and served in that capacity until her son John S. Novak joined the company in 1957. Today, the fourth generation carries on the family tradition with John S. Novak Jr. at the helm. He says he now is grooming the fifth generation – his children – to see Sokol and Company continue its success well into the future.

Continuous Evolution
About one-third of Sokol and Company’s business consists of retail sales under its own brands; the remaining two-thirds is supplying product to other firms through private labeling and custom ingredients. For example, many of the company’s ingredients are used for flavoring ice cream, and all ingredients are customized for the individual customer, Novak stresses. Sokol and Company manufactures everything from its Countryside, Ill., headquarters. It recently expanded its facility from 40,000 square feet to more than 100,000.

The company is in the process of becoming Safe Quality Food (SQF)-certified. “We’ve always been audited by third parties, but we want to move to a higher standard for the food safety system we have in place,” he says. “As we are going through the process, we realize we have most of what SQF requires already in place, but it’s an ongoing process. It is expensive to administer a program like this, but it’s something that not every food company can do. We have an infrastructure here that can handle doubling the size of our business.

“Our growth has come primarily from acquiring new capabilities either in processing or in packaging based on what we see our customers’ needs are,” he explains. “We just added the ability to produce some low-acid products through freezing as they are produced and packaged. We continue to look at all of our systems such as new information technology software to run our business. In some cases, we leapfrog into new technology through a partnership arrangement with a customer that is looking for something new. Then, we sell that capacity beyond the original customer. We try to be proactive in that area. We certainly don’t believe we can sit still and not continue to grow.”

In 2006, Sokol and Company was an Inc. 5000 recipient for being one of the fastest-growing private companies. Two years ago, when the company noticed an increase in the cost of raw materials, it underwent a corporate restructure. This was an intelligent move that has enabled the company to cope in a now receding economy, Novak says. “We were a lot leaner going into the recession, but throughout our history and in talking with my father, we always believed in investing in the business even in tougher times,” he says. “When things turn around, we’ll be better positioned to move forward quickly. We’re having our most profitable year in one of the worst recessions in the economy, so it can be done.”

A Charitable Company
Sokol and Company’s Solo Foods brand devotes its time and resources to a number of causes in the Chicago area. Among these is Feed the Children, the ninth-largest international charity in the United States. Feed the Children delivers food, clothing and other necessities to families suffering due to famine, war, poverty or natural disasters.    

The company also is the primary sponsor of Soccer Is For Everyone, a free soccer camp for 350 children in the Chicago area. Additionally, the company sponsors the Teresa Sokol Novak Scholarship for students at the Washburne Culinary Institute of Kennedy-King College in Chicago. The company says the scholarship is named after John Novak Jr.’s grandmother, “since she had served as an inspiration as the family business grew.”