Mitch Horton

Provide strategic leadership for Schreiber Foods’ only CCFM cheese manufacturing facility, overseeing 24/7 operations across production, quality, safety, and logistics. Lead a diverse team of salaried leaders and hourly partners, fostering a culture of continuous improvement, accountability, and operational excellence.

• Champion plant-wide initiatives to improve cost, quality, and service through Lean manufacturing, cross-functional collaboration, and a performance-driven culture.
• Ensure compliance with all regulatory requirements (USDA, FDA, OSHA, EPA) while maintaining a safe, sanitary, and high-performing work environment.
• Drive partner engagement through equitable HR practices, skill-based pay programs, and career development initiatives.
• Lead capital planning and execution, ensuring prudent investment in equipment and infrastructure to support long-term growth.
• Represent the facility in community and customer engagements, reinforcing Schreiber’s values and commitment to excellence.
• Collaborate with internal teams and suppliers to align production with customer expectations, ensuring food safety and quality standards are consistently met.
• Implement and audit CCPs, PCPs, and SOPs to ensure compliance with Food Safety and Quality Plans.
• Spearhead cost-reduction strategies and process improvements that enhance plant efficiency, reduce waste, and improve service levels.

Directed round-the-clock operations for a high-volume fluid milk and ice cream production facility, overseeing a workforce of 200 hourly employees, 15 supervisors, and 3 managers. Provided strategic leadership across production, scheduling, quality, and safety to ensure consistent output and operational excellence.

• Led all aspects of plant operations, delivering clear direction and support across all levels of staff to maximize productivity, efficiency, and team engagement.
• Developed and executed staffing plans, resolved operational challenges in real time, and ensured seamless execution of daily production goals.
• Spearheaded the integration of a new shrink-wrap vendor, generating annual cost savings of $100,000 through improved packaging efficiency.
• Restructured executive and cross-functional meetings to enhance alignment, reduce time waste, and drive more actionable outcomes.
• Championed quality and safety initiatives, ensuring adherence to rigorous product standards and regulatory requirements.
• Played a key role in facilitating process improvements that enabled successful SQF audit outcomes, reinforcing the facility’s commitment to food safety and compliance.
• Supported the successful launch of a new 96 oz milk bottle for major national retailers by coordinating cross-functional teams and implementing new manufacturing processes.

Dynamic operations manager overseeing end-to-end manufacturing and supply chain functions within a 200,000 sq. ft. facility specializing in bovine colostrum and nutritional powders. Lead a high-performing team of two department managers, five supervisors, and over fifty hourly employees across fluid processing, powder blending, packaging, maintenance, and warehousing.

• Direct daily plant operations while aligning with cross-functional leaders in Quality, Sales, Marketing, and Procurement to drive business objectives and customer satisfaction.
• Manage and optimize plant-level VPC and FPC budgets across production, maintenance, and warehousing; consistently deliver results within or below Annual Operating Plan (AOP) targets.
• Spearhead capital planning and execution of projects exceeding $1M, ensuring ROI, and alignment with long-term strategic goals.
• Collaborated with internal stakeholders to secure a $10M multi-year contract with a national brand, expanding market presence, and revenue streams.
• Led a successful R&D trial for a new functional whole milk protein powder, resulting in a $5M annual supply agreement and product line expansion.
• Championed the implementation of Upkeep CMMS, streamlining maintenance workflows, and enhancing preventive maintenance effectiveness.
• Key contributor to the deployment of a $150K PLEX ERP system, improving real-time data visibility, reducing WIP and waste, and enhancing cross-departmental collaboration.
• Reengineered shift structure to a 4-day, 10-hour schedule, aligning with corporate work-life balance initiatives, and reducing absenteeism by 30%.
• Partnered with HR to design and launch a comprehensive training and progressive pay program for hourly staff, fostering operational redundancy, accountability, and multi-departmental agility.

Progressively promoted to lead both high-volume dairy processing and large-scale farm operations for a vertically integrated dairy enterprise. Directed cross-functional teams across production, packaging, and agricultural logistics, delivering measurable improvements in efficiency, quality, and employee engagement.

Led HTST processing operations, including 10 packaging lines, 4 supervisors, and 72 hourly associates, producing 150,000 gallons of fluid milk daily across multiple SKUs, including organic, cottage cheese, and sour cream.

• Drove operational excellence through the implementation of the Red Zone digital production system, resulting in a 25% improvement in Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE).
• Reduced downtime by 5% while maintaining best-in-class quality control standards, maximizing throughput, and revenue.
• Promoted to Farm Manager within four months, overseeing 24/7 dairy farm operations with four supervisors and 60 employees, producing 700,000 lbs. Of milk and delivering 2 million lbs. Feed daily.
• Optimized a $3M/month feed program, increasing milk output by 5–7 lbs. Per cow, while reducing feed shrink to below 5% and minimizing employee error rates.
• Key contributor to the successful conversion to 24/7 mix-proof valve systems, enabling a 16% increase in production capacity.
• Collaborated on sanitation process enhancements that improved first-time-right quality rates from 90% to 99%, significantly reducing quality holds.
• Recognized with an 18% merit raise, a 10% performance bonus, and a one-time retention award for exceptional leadership, cost savings, and employee engagement.
• Built and developed high-performing, cross-functional teams that fostered collaboration, accountability, and operational synergy across departments.

Directed all aspects of a 4,500-cow dairy operation, overseeing daily herd health, production, and workforce management. Led a team of 60+ hourly employees and 4 salaried supervisors, ensuring operational continuity and high standards of animal care and productivity.

Co-owned and operated a large-scale, multi-site dairy enterprise with a herd of 20,000+ and a workforce of over 200 employees, including 10 salaried department managers. Oversaw the production of more than one million pounds of milk daily while managing all aspects of operations, finance, and strategic growth.