Building a food plant is a little like gem polishing: square cut or pear shaped, the finished product's value depends on the talent and expertise brought to bear.
Detroit's Karpe family began roasting nuts in 1933 in the shadow of Navin Field, where the Detroit Tigers once played. When the family matriarch retired in 1967, Bud Nicolay purchased Kar's Nuts, which had abandoned the Karpe kitchen 20 years earlier to roast and package nuts in Ferndale, MI.