How an iconic American food company rethought workforce
Bush’s Beans is the #1 bean brand in America, a billion-dollar family business with more than 100 years of history behind it. That history is a big part of what makes Bush’s, Bush’s. The company has a high bar for its people, its culture, and the partners it brings into the business.
Laborup started working with Bush’s more than 1 year ago around some of the hardest roles to fill in a food manufacturing operation: engineering technicians and maintenance technicians.
As Bush’s expanded capacity and brought new lines online, the workforce challenge grew with it. They needed to move faster, but they could not solve the problem by simply sending more applicants through the process. The people had to be technically capable, dependable, and a fit for the way Bush’s operates.
The job mattered. The relationship did too.
Before deploying Laborup, we learned the operation. The equipment, maintenance environment, shifts, production processes, technical requirements, and what great performance actually looked like inside the facility.
But with Bush’s, that was only part of it. This is a family business with more than 100 years of history and a culture people genuinely care about. Who they bring into the company matters. Who they choose to partner with matters too.
So we spent time together. We were in the facility. We sat down over lunch. We learned how their team worked, what they valued, and what made someone feel like a Bush’s person, not just someone who could technically do the job. Over time, the partnership became a friendship. We became part of the family.
That context went into Laborup alongside the operating data. Our platform could model the work, but also increasingly understand the people who thrived inside Bush’s. Then we connected that understanding to our manufacturing workforce network, screening and matching tens of thousands of workers against what the business actually needed.
When Bush’s needed to ramp a new production line, that combination of product, data, and trust meant we could move fast. We were able to stand up the workforce pipeline in 1 to 2 weeks without sacrificing the bar on who came through the door.
From a hard hiring problem to part of the team
What started with engineering and maintenance technicians expanded as Bush’s saw the speed and quality of the hires. Laborup helped fill critical roles 5 to 10× faster, supported major production ramps, and became a go-to workforce partner across the business.
Today, the relationship is expanding across multiple Bush’s facilities. And because we know the operation, the culture, and the people behind it, every new role starts further ahead than the last one.
The result is not just faster hiring. It is a workforce system that understands what Bush’s needs, learns with every hire, and can move with the business as production grows.
