# Smith Dairy Products Company Union Pension Plan Smith Dairy Products Company Union Pension Plan is a Pension Fund based in Orrville, United States. ## Overview - **Organization type:** Pension Fund - **Headquarters:** Orrville, United States - **Region:** North America - **Address:** Orrville, OH, United States - **Founded:** 2001 - **Assets under management:** Less than $10M (Altss estimate) - **Website:** www.smithfoods.com ## Regulatory record - **Reports private funds:** No ## About The Smith Dairy Products Company Union Pension Plan was established in 2001 as a noncontributory defined benefit plan for hourly workers represented by Local Union No. 348 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Plan administrator Nate Schmid, who also serves as president and CEO of plan sponsor SmithFoods Orrville Inc, oversees a pool of assets estimated at roughly $7 million. The plan's existence is inseparable from the fortunes of a single processing plant at 1381 Dairy Lane in Orrville, Ohio, where third-generation family member Stephen W. Schmid helped build the brand before the October 2024 acquisition of SmithFoods by Prairie Farms Dairy, 2024). The plan does not deploy capital as an institutional direct investor. Rather than allocating to venture funds or direct deals, its assets reside in insurance-company separate accounts managed by Sentry Life Insurance Company, a strategy common among smaller Midwestern union pension plans that seek guaranteed-issue products with defined crediting rates. Identified holdings include Sentry's REIT Index Account, Small Cap Blend Account III, Small Cap Growth Account, Small Cap Index Account, Small Cap Value Fund, Balanced Accounts, Concentrated Growth Account, and Diversified Accounts, all booked in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. This structure funnels union retirement capital into pooled insurance products covering equities, real estate, and balanced mandates without requiring an in-house investment staff. The plan operates with no dedicated investment professionals beyond Schmid's administrative oversight. Its governance is tied to the collective bargaining relationship between SmithFoods and the Teamsters local, making contribution levels and benefit formulas a function of labor negotiations rather than portfolio returns. The Schmid family's broader footprint includes philanthropic vehicles such as the Chris Schmid Memorial Fund and ongoing support for the Orrville Area Boys & Girls Club, while Eddie Steiner, a SmithFoods vice president, sits on the board of Park National Bank and the Ohio Bankers League. In October 2024, Prairie Farms Dairy acquired SmithFoods Orrville Inc, a transaction that raises questions about the pension plan's long-term sponsorship as the founding family exits the operating business. The plan's structural differentiator is its extreme embeddedness in a single-site industrial employer. There is no corporate parent with multiple subsidiaries, no multi-employer pooling arrangement, and no investment consultant. The entire corpus is managed through annuity-style insurance products, making this plan a nearly pure expression of the single-employer defined benefit model that dominated American manufacturing before the shift to 401(k) plans. ## Sectors - Manufacturing ## People - Nate Schmid — President and CEO of SmithFoods Orrville Inc and Plan Administrator ## Questions ### Who runs investment decisions at the Smith Dairy Products Company Union Pension Plan? Plan administrator Nate Schmid, president and CEO of SmithFoods Orrville Inc, is the named fiduciary responsible for plan oversight. There is no dedicated chief investment officer or investment committee disclosed. Asset allocation is implemented through insurance-company separate accounts, not through direct security selection by plan officials. ### How does the plan invest its assets? The plan's assets are held in a series of separate accounts with Sentry Life Insurance Company, based in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. These accounts span equities (small cap blend, small cap growth, small cap value, small cap index), real estate (REIT index), balanced mandates, concentrated growth, and diversified strategies. This insurance-company platform approach is standard for smaller defined benefit plans that lack the scale to access institutional separate account managers directly. ### How is the plan related to SmithFoods Orrville Inc? SmithFoods Orrville Inc is the plan sponsor and the entity that employs the union members covered by the pension. The plan is a noncontributory defined benefit arrangement, meaning the employer bears the funding obligation. In October 2024, Prairie Farms Dairy acquired SmithFoods Orrville Inc, raising the question of whether the pension obligation will be maintained, merged into a Prairie Farms plan, or terminated. ### Which union represents the plan participants? Local Union No. 348 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents the workers whose retirement benefits are governed by this plan. The plan's benefit formula and contribution schedule are products of collective bargaining between the union and SmithFoods management. ### What is the stated current asset size of the plan? The plan does not publicly disclose its asset total. Altss estimates the corpus at roughly $7 million based on available records, placing it at the bottom of the institutional pension universe. This estimate reflects the plan's status as a single-employer, single-facility arrangement serving a modest bargaining unit in Orrville, Ohio. ## Related profiles - [Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology](https://altss.com/profile/raymond-m-alf-museum-of-paleontology) - [Team Pennsylvania Foundation](https://altss.com/profile/team-pennsylvania-foundation) --- Last updated: 2026-08-11T02:43:31.692Z Canonical page: https://altss.com/profile/smith-dairy-products-company-union-pension-plan Maintained by Altss — https://altss.com — methodology: https://altss.com/methodology