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Scott Johnson is just a few months away from retirement after working for Hormel Foods for just over 40 years.

During his time he’s seen a lot of changes, but he still looks forward to one of the constants every year — the annual profit sharing distribution, which took place on Wednesday.

“It’s been a great day,” Johnson said. “It’s a company that pays out profit sharing to employees that they appreciate and they show that appreciation and it helps everybody in the community.”

“It thrives the community, helps families out with the holidays, gifts and the whole experience is helping them perceive life as being better,” he added.

Johnson is one of the just under 1,900 employees working at the plant in Austin, who received their profit sharing checks throughout the day Wednesday in groups.

Jesse Padron has been working at the plant for a couple years now and received his first profit sharing check on Wednesday morning.

He said it’s a boost coming at just the right time of year.

“I’m happy to actually spread the joy of Thanksgiving right,” he said. “Going to wrap up some Christmas shopping, make the family happy.”

He went on to say that being a part of the distribution is a point of pride for workers as well as the company.

“It just represents their strength,” he said. “Hormel always sets the bar and a lot of companies and industries try to copycat and keep up. They are a really strong company.”

It’s the 86th year of the distribution and continues to be something that both plant workers and administration look forward to every year.

“It’s always an important day for Hormel and the Austin plant does it differently than the other facilities,” Plant Manager Ed Finnegan in between group distributions. “I really enjoy being able to engage with each of our team members and share a message of thanks.”

With just five months on the job, Finnegan has seen the value placed on the products being produced at the plant.

He said it’s a part of keeping up the traditions of supporting the workers through the years.

“We’re a hard-working plant and it’s a great opportunity for us to show the plant team how they contribute to the product success at Hormel Foods,” he said. “People’s safety, product safety and cost control. We talk about those three things a lot. They are all professional with the things they do keeping those things in mind.”

During one of his presentations, Finnegan impressed upon employees that importance by reflecting the contributions to the public.

By his own rough count, Finnegan told employees that he estimates 1.6 billion customer experiences come out of the plant through the products made there a year.

“It’s a reminder of the responsibility we have …” he told them, referring to the safety of people and products in the plant.

He also was able to reflect on how much the plant means to the community with two numbers he presented, including $80,953 and 48,727 pounds of products donated back into Austin.

In getting his check, Johnson looked back on how the extra money has been a part of his life.

“When you’re growing up the thing is you first start using it on bills,” he said. “As you go through the process now you’re buying things for your home and yourself and now with the latter years you’re investing.”

Not only can he look back to this extra boost, Johnson now gets to look back at his time overall at the plant and is happy to have been a part of it for four decades.

“When I first started here you mainly knew most everybody and then as things have changed, diversity has come in and you get to learn about different parts of the world from people,” he said. “It’s really interesting to just see where people have come from and how their lifestyles have changed and how they appreciate coming to a company who really cares about their employees.”

“I just want to thank Hormel very much and that I got 40 years of profit sharing and I hope it continues after I’m gone,” he added.