WATERLOO - Palmer House Foods, a food-processing company that blends seasonings for area meat lockers, is leaving town after 27 years of operation.

The company will relocate to Omaha, Neb., effective Tuesday. Its last day at 313 Kothe St. in Waterloo will be Monday, said owner Larry Palmer, son of the company's late founder, Robert Palmer.

"It is a bittersweet day," he added as his three full-time employees went about the business of closing down the company.

Palmer House supplies spices, soy products, starches and a lengthy roster of other items to customers across the country. The move brings the company closer to its owners, who are based in Omaha, and to upper management, Palmer said.

Robert Palmer, a native of Prairie du Chien, Wis., lived in Waterloo when he launched the company in 1982. He died in 1990, and Lou Efting, who had been with the company since 1984, took over as manager.

Efting recently announced she was retiring, as did the company's blending foreman, Robert Plunkett. That facilitated the decision to make the move, Larry Palmer said.

"Lou has been the glue of this operation," Palmer said.

The company's lease with Lehman Trucking & Excavating, which operates next door, is also expiring. That also factored into the decision.

"Mr. Lehman … has built a new building right behind us, and he's going to rent this building out," Efting said of Palmer House, which served as a warehouse in the past.

Palmer House's other full-time employee, General Manager Bart Novak, the owner's son-in-law, has commuted between Omaha and Waterloo for three years. He learned the operation and cultivated customers and will move with the operation to Nebraska.

Palmer House has customers across the Cedar Valley and from Alaska to Florida, Efting said. How the change will affect business with area clients is an open question.

"We're not sure," she said. "They can order by e-mail. We're on the Web. We've got a WATS line. They can't just order something one day and pop in the next and have it ready for pickup."

The company does a brisk business during deer season, Efting noted.

"The locker plants process all those deer, and that's a big part of our business, getting that seasoning made," she said.

One local customer is Steege's Meat Market in Cedar Falls. Co-owner Joel Steege isn't sure how or whether the Palmer move would affect the two firms' connection.

"It all depends," he said. "They really haven't said much to us how shipping and everything is going to go."

Steege noted his business has been a long-time client.

"It's definitely going to change because things we can get from them we can get from other (suppliers)," he added.

Palmer expects few, if any, changes, though.

"Instead of shipping out of Waterloo, we'll be shipping out of Omaha," he said.