Local Company To Be Featured on "The View"

Another Grove based company is about to get nationwide exposure, this time on ABC Television's "The View" at 10 a.m. Monday, July 3.
Popcorn from "Ye Olde Kettle Cooker" and Concessions Manufacturing Co. of Grove will be under the seats of audience members and promoted during the show.
The difference between microwave popcorn and kettle popcorn is like the difference between Grandma's fried chicken cooked in a cast iron skillet, and a microwave product from the grocery store. Once we started eating, we couldn't stop. This popcorn is crispier and more sweet than ordinary popped corn. It is not greasy and doesn't need butter.
Kettle Popcorn dates back to the 1800's and most believe it originated in Germany. Cooked over intense heat in soybean oil, sugar, and salt, Kettle popcorn is ready in under three minutes. The secret is the high heat, and the mixture of ingredients in just the right quantity. Two quarts of unpopped corn can generate 100 quarts of popped corn.
World headquarters for Concessions Manufacturing LLC is south of Grove on Highway 59, headed by Howard and Danny Turrel, father and son, who started the company some 10 years ago. A staff of about eight employees builds several Ye Olde Kettle Cooker units a week, which sell for $7500 for the basic unit up to $35,000 for the complete concession trailer and premier interior package.
These aren't for your basic homeowner who wants to make up a batch every night, but for those wanting to make money serving it up to customers.
The major parts for these units include the cooker itself with a ceramic porcelain top, and a receiving tub. The popcorn can be mixed with either a large paddle, or an automatic mixer. The actual trailers are built by Haulmark.
Obviously, the market for these units is people who are in business to make money selling kettle corn at state fairs, entertainment venues, amusement parks, etc.
Cookers are used at such places as Dollywood, Silver Dollar City, Six Flags, Cypress Gardens, Hersheypark, Kings Dominion and many more. The units are capable of producing revenue in excess of $400 per hour; Silver Dollar City in Branson once popped more than 850 pounds of German Kettle Popcorn in one day, on one cooker.
Concessions Manufacturing's location south of Grove has a test kitchen where new products are tested, and a cabinet shop for custom work The company has sold units all over the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Hawaii, and Europe. It was featured recently on the Food Network's "Unwrapped" show. Upcoming is an article in the Northeast Oklahoma Electric Co-op Magazine. Some 60 per cent of the buyers come to Grove and pick up the unit, but others are shipped via truck and even container ships across the ocean.
The Ye Olde Kettle Cooker has been named the #1 popcorn cooker in the U.S. by Amusement Park Magazine.
"A person can invest $15,000 in a unit and recover his investment in a matter of months," Turrel said. Some major amusement parks have grossed over a million dollars in one year, he added. Turrel markets the units via website, trade shows, industry magazines and small business opportunity workshops. Read more at www.kettlepopcorn.net

In Photo: Danny Turrel, owner of Concessions Manufacturing Co in Grove stands next to one of his "Ye Olde Kettle Cooker" units.