BEATRICE – A Beatrice food manufacturer making meat snacks plans to expand warehouse space. Landmark Snacks received city approval Monday night to acquire part of North 7th Street that ends next to the company’s north Beatrice plant that makes protein bars, jerky bits and snack sticks.


Co-owner Chad Lottman says the company that currently employs about 110 people will continue to use 7th as a street, but the transaction solves some zoning issues for the company.


"Both Roehr's Machinery and we utilize the side of that street for trailer parking, truck traffic...and it made more sense to vacate the street and work with the city, on that...to prevent us from needing to remove a bunch of concrete".


Lottman says the company is adding about 27,000 square feet of warehouse space onto the southwest corner of the plant. The company has been adding employees.


"The addition of the warehouse space will free up space inside the current facility, which will allow us to add onto our production rooms, inside. It will allow us good, organic growth moving forward. I don't exactly have a number, but over the next six to twelve months, we envision having somewhere between fifteen and thirty more people working, hopefully".


Lottman says the company was very busy and the market was very strong as the coronavirus pandemic kept people at home. He says things began to slow down, but are recovering.


"Those sales were really strong in the beginning, but once everybody settled in to being at home a couple months in, then it really started slowing down on us. We were looking at having a few weeks to a couple of months of really slow time, trying to keep people busy...and then as the country started opening up again, our customers had more need, and we went right back in the other direction...and now were as busy, as ever".


Landmark Snacks is located at 700 Park Street, in north Beatrice.