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Mayor hails expansion as great news for city; plant will create jobs
By Paula Schleis
Beacon Journal business writer
Published on Tuesday, Apr 08, 2008
Shearer's Foods Inc. will build a new snack-food plant and headquarters in Massillon, adding at least 180 new full-time jobs over the next three years, company officials said.
Some 60 people will move from the current corporate office in Brewster, where the infrastructure of the small Stark County village — including the wastewater system — won't support an expansion, Chief Executive Bob Shearer said.
The existing manufacturing plant in Brewster will remain there.
Massillon Mayor Frank Cicchinelli Jr. called the news ''one of the best announcements in our city's history. . . . We're really excited.''
The new 150,000-square-foot facility will be the first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environment Design) Gold Certified food manufacturing plant in Ohio.
That means it will comply with the U.S. Green Building Council's requirements for the reduction of energy and atmosphere emissions, water conservation, waste reduction, associate sustainability and minimization of the site's environmental footprint.
Massillon has offered Shearer's a tax abatement of 75 percent for 10 years, as well as a $50,000 economic development incentive grant, Cicchinelli said.
The state also put together an incentive package, which includes $612,000 for work-force training.
Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher is expected to explain other incentives during a formal announcement at Shearer's this morning.
Ground will be broken in July, with production in the new facility beginning in the summer of 2009.
The facility will be built by Schumacher Construction on 14 acres in Massillon's Nova Technology Park. The architect is John Picard of Canton.
Shearer's said the project is in response to growing market demands, as well as new prod
uct development opportunities.
The company has seen double-digit revenue growth in each of the last 10 years, Bob Shearer said.
Workers produce 100 million pounds of snacks a year — double the amount from just three years ago.
And since the company last expanded its Brewster facility in 1998, the employment ranks have swelled from fewer than 200 to 668.
''Support of our local economy and the retention of vital manufacturing jobs in the area are key factors in our decision to build our new plant in Massillon,'' Bob Shearer added.
While the goal is to create 180 jobs in three years, company spokeswoman Melissa Shearer said that is a conservative estimate.
''We're saying that, but it will really add so many more,'' she said.
The 34-year-old family-run company makes tortilla chips, cheese curls and corn chips, but it is best known as the nation's leading producer of kettle- cooked potato chips. (The chips are crunchier than regular ones, and are browned in peanut or cottonseed oil.)
Distribution will continue from Shearer's current location on land that was annexed by Massillon from Navarre. There is also a manufacturing plant in Lubbock, Texas.
Paula Schleis can be reached at 330-996-3741 or pschleis@thebeaconjournal.com.
Shearer's Foods Inc. will build a new snack-food plant and headquarters in Massillon, adding at least 180 new full-time jobs over the next three years, company officials said.
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