Torani Shrinks Manufacturing Gender Gap, Increasing Women in Frontline Positions by 625% in the Last Five Years

Female-Led Flavor Company is Cracking the Code on How to Increase and Sustain Women Working in Manufacturing Roles

• The Bay Area-based company has committed to creating more opportunities for women in the historically male-dominated manufacturing field.
• In the last five years, Torani has increased positions for women in frontline roles by 625% thanks to automation, upskilling roles, and a dedicated focus on increasing diversity.
• Similar to all of Torani’s positions at the company, these manufacturing roles provide women with opportunities to grow with training, development, benefits, and bonuses.

National Manufacturing Week – Torani, the trusted leader in the flavor industry for nearly 100 years, has doubled down on its efforts over the last five years to increase the number of women in frontline positions and has seen a five-fold uptick of women in manufacturing roles thanks to automation, upskilling roles, and a dedicated focus on increasing diversity.

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In the last five years, Torani has increased positions for women in frontline roles by 625% thanks to automation, upskilling roles, and a dedicated focus on increasing diversity. (Photo: Business Wire)

Now, nearly 28% of Torani’s manufacturing team is made up of women, an impressive feat considering manufacturing has historically been a male-dominated field nationwide. The San Francisco Bay Area-based company is majority owned by women, led by a female CEO, has a senior team consisting of 46% women, and is determined to keep growing the number of women in its manufacturing roles. Torani is driven by its purpose, “Flavor for all, Opportunity for all,” and is committed to creating more opportunities for everyone in the company.

“Women are now playing key roles in every department and at every level within the organization. We believe incredible value comes from having a range of backgrounds and perspectives at the table,” said Becca Russell, Torani’s chief of people and opportunity development. “Even a company as progressive as Torani, that has been deeply dedicated to creating opportunities for all, must challenge ourselves to take a step back and assess where there isn’t equal access to opportunity. Minimizing work that required brute strength was one step forward, and there is still more to do to remove barriers for all to succeed.”

As of August 2022, 49 million women are in the U.S. workforce, a slight increase from February 2020, before the pandemic started. In industries like manufacturing, however, the road to closing the gender gap has gotten even longer, with women making up around 47% of the total workforce nationwide, but holding less than 30% of manufacturing roles across the industry. Torani is committed to closing that gap – the company has made notable progress over the last few years, and is just getting started. Since 2016, Torani has been on an upward trajectory of hiring more women in frontline positions. As of August 2022, there were 29 women working in vital frontline roles at Torani and every role includes training, development, benefits, bonuses, an employee stock ownership program, and many more opportunities for these team members.

Manufacturing jobs have historically been dominated by men due to their strenuous physical demands. However, when Torani outgrew its space in South San Francisco in 2019, the company saw an opportunity to rethink all its ways of working, drawing inspiration from the world’s leading technology hub in nearby Silicon Valley. The following year, the company opened the doors to its new state-of-the-art “Flavor Factory” in San Leandro, California, packed with cutting-edge technology and automation that has improved how the company works and empowered Torani to begin realizing a vision of broadening its team.

Previously, thousands of empty bottles from the production line needed to be loaded manually, but due to advances in technology, the bottles are now automatically fed. Instead of team members needing to manage tedious manual steps with hand weighing ingredients, this process has been replaced with automated ingredient additions metered into mix tanks by operators controlling the process from touch screens. This type of reduction in manual labor has enabled the workflows to become automated, which allowed Torani to begin the process of hiring more women into manufacturing positions.

National Manufacturing Day/Week

In accordance with Torani’s commitment to hiring more women in manufacturing, the company is proud to participate in this year’s National Manufacturing Day on October 7 and Bay Area Manufacturing Week from October 7 to 14. Each year, National Manufacturing Day and Bay Area Manufacturing Week are held to highlight the value and importance of manufacturing in America. In partnership with AMBayArea and the Bay Area Community Colleges, Torani will participate in a local manufacturing job fair on Wednesday, October 26, 2022. More information on the event can be found here.

About Torani

We are deeply committed to being an amazing flavor company. Established in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood in 1925, we put the Italian soda on the U.S. map in the 1920s and created the world's first flavored latte in the 1980s. From the beginning, we’ve used only the best ingredients, like natural flavors and pure cane sugar, to craft flavors that are vibrant and delicious. Enjoyed in cafés, restaurants, and home kitchens around the world, we strive to inspire and lead flavor innovation globally while remaining a family-owned Bay Area business. In practice and in life beyond the bottle, we’re a certified B-Corp that believes businesses should create more opportunity and we’re dedicated to helping all of the people, partners, and communities we touch, thrive. www.torani.com

Instagram @Torani | Twitter @Torani | TikTok @ToraniFlavor | Facebook @ToraniFlavor

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