100 Years of Family Pop Corn: AOL’s This Built America Profiles Iowa’s American Pop Corn Co.

Sioux City, Iowa (July 29, 2014) – This Built America, a new multimedia platform from AOL exploring the companies and people reimagining American manufacturing, comes to Sioux City this week to profile the American Pop Corn Company — a company built on family values that has been going strong for a century.

In this episode, the fourth and fifth generations of the Smiths, who are still running the company their relative founded 100 years ago, discuss why keeping American Pop Corn in the family is the key to their business success. It hasn’t always been easy to keep the company afloat, or to turn away offers from larger corporations to buy the American Pop Corn brands, but the Smiths feel a connection to Sioux City and their employees that drives and motivates them each day.

For American Pop Corn Company, being chosen to represent Iowa in This Built America is proof that founder Cloid H. Smith made the right decision banking on family business all those years ago, no matter the circumstance. “The American Pop Corn Company is and always has been about family; the Smith family, our family of employees, our family of growers and our consumers’ families. Helping families and friends enjoy favorite times together over a bowl of JOLLY TIME Pop Corn is our greatest joy and constant motivation,” states Garry Smith, president and 4th generation Smith family member.

To view the full episode and more on JOLLY TIME Pop Corn and the Smith family, visit http://www.thisbuiltamerica.com/iowa.

American Pop Corn Company joins a national movement in This Built America that is devoted to supporting American companies and American-made products. AOL is proud to support the effort along with sponsor Ford Trucks. Through the year, the editorial and video teams will explore 50 states in 50 weeks to bring 50 stories of the people who are bringing back manufacturing to America. The platform is produced in coordination with Man Made Content.