Indiana Food Manufacturing Plant Scheduled For Reopening
Yesterday, Sugar Creek Packing Co. announced plans to reopen a closed food manufacturing plant located on the outskirts of Cambridge City, Indiana. The news was welcomed by both residents and city officials, as they believe it will produce hundreds of new jobs. Although preparing the plant for use will take well over a year, Sugar Creek Packing Co. believes this acquisition is an investment that will pay off in the long run. To learn more about the reopening of this Indiana-based manufacturing plant, keep reading.
As stated above, this isn’t a project for developing a new manufacturing plant, but rather the reopening of an old one. The plant purchased by Sugar Creek Packing Co. was owned and ran by Really Cool Foods. When Really Cool Foods originally opened the plant back in 2008, they promised investors Cambridge residents the creation of over 1,000 jobs and several million dollars in revenue. Unfortunately, the company wasn’t able to take off the way it had planned and as a result, they went bankrupt. After filing for Chapter 11 towards the end of last year, Really Cool Foods began liquidating all of their assets including the manufacturing plant.
In June of this year, Sugar Creek contacted Really Cool Foods with the desire to purchase their Cambridge-based manufacturing plant. After some negotiations, a deal was struck in which Sugar Creek would pay $13 million for the plant and several related assets. In addition, the city of Cambridge also offered some tax break incentives for Sugar Creek if they went ahead with the deal. If Sugar Creek lives up to their promises, they will receive nearly $3 million in tax breaks.
It’s unclear as to what Sugar Creek will be producing at their newly-purchased plant, but they have stated their intentions are to focus on ready-to-eat snacks and food products. Of course this is likely to change as the company begins to roll in new manufacturing equipment.
There are several renovations necessary before the plant becomes ready for operations. Along with additional storage, a spokesman for Sugar Creek announced their plans to add additional refrigeration space. The company is hoping for a fourth quarter of 2013 opening, but new unexpected problems could push this date back farther. As you may know, things are bound to go wrong when opening up a food manufacturing plant. If Sugar Creek’s past tells us anything about the company, though, we can expect them to work fast and efficiently to offer the city of Cambridge a new plant with hundreds of new jobs.