Every minute of downtime in food manufacturing puts revenue and resources at risk. For Conagra Brands—a $12 billion packaged foods leader with operations across 82 locations worldwide—legacy network infrastructure was becoming a bottleneck. Manufacturing plants were maxing out their bandwidth. Expansion plans were slowed by long circuit deployment timelines. And production lines faced the risk of costly interruptions.
The company’s MPLS-based network couldn’t scale affordably. With 10–20 Mbps circuits, plants were constantly running at capacity. Upgrading to larger MPLS circuits wasn’t cost-effective, and support from their previous vendor was slow to resolve issues. Adding new locations took 90–120 days—far too long for a business built on operational efficiency.
Conagra needed a reliable, responsive solution that could scale with their growth. They turned to Momentum.
The Solution
Momentum helped Conagra:
- Deploy high-capacity 100 Mbps dedicated internet access (DIA) circuits at 40–45 sites
- Transition away from MPLS to flexible internet circuits
- Replace routers with SD-WAN appliances for seamless failover
- Introduce wireless last-mile connectivity where needed
- Cut deployment timelines in half, from 90–120 days to 30–60 days
- Port approximately 180 toll-free numbers, reducing costs from $40,000 to $12,000 monthly
The Outcome
Today, Momentum manages 50% of Conagra’s connectivity across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. The move from MPLS has resulted in approximately $2 million in annual savings.
“The cost savings have been remarkable—we’re saving $2 million a year after moving away from MPLS and our previous internet circuit provider,” says Mike McMillin, Network Engineering Manager at Conagra. “But what’s even more valuable is the reliability and increased bandwidth. Our plants used to starve for bandwidth, but now they can run at full production unhindered, which has increased productivity tremendously.”
With reliable internet and SD-WAN failover in place, Conagra’s plants now operate without the risk of shutdowns due to network issues. The enhanced infrastructure ensures food moves from production lines to consumers—without missing a beat.
This type of transformation isn’t limited to food manufacturing. Any organization with distributed sites, outdated infrastructure, or rising connectivity costs can benefit from the same approach. Whether it’s manufacturing, retail, logistics, or healthcare, Momentum delivers the speed, reliability, and scale to keep operations moving.
