Amy’s Kitchen to begin operations in Pocatello

Natural and organic convenience and frozen foods manufacturer Amy’s Kitchen is to expand its operations by purchasing Heinz’s plant located in Pocatello, Idaho, US.

The announcement was made by Idaho governor Butch Otter and other local leaders.

Company officials said that there are plans to hire close to 200 full-time employees after the 500,000ft² facility commences operations by December 2014.

The plant formerly operated by Heinz was shutdown in June because the owner wanted to reduce costs. This resulted in almost 400 job losses.

Amy CEO and co-founder Andy Berliner said: "We’re excited for this opportunity to immediately begin increasing our capacity. We’ve experienced double-digit growth in the past year, and this move is the perfect complement to our long-term growth efforts we’ve already initiated in Goshen, New York, as well as expansions in Medford, Oregon, and Santa Rosa, California."

The governor’s office informed that apart from the 200 initial jobs, the company plans to rope in close to 1,000 employees during the 15-year term of the incentive. When the project is fully staffed over 15 years, the economic impact to the state will include new total wages of $342m and new state tax revenues of $35.7m.

Butch Otter said: "The reopening of this state-of the-art facility in Pocatello by a family owned company that extends its family style atmosphere to its employees is exciting news for both the community and the state."

The company will receive a TRI credit of 26% for 15 years, which was matched by the local community with the Bannock County Board of County Commissioners approving a 75% property tax abatement that applies to the existing facility along with any future investments.

---

Image: Amy’s Kitchen manufactures natural, organic, convenience and frozen food. Photo: courtesy of tiramisustudio / freedigitalphotos.net.