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Boar's Head plans to expand
3/19/2008
By PATRICK REVERE
Holland Sentinel
Boar's Head Provisions, a Holland Township processor and distributor of deli meats and cheeses, will expand by nearly 50,000 square feet and hire more than 200 people in the coming years.
The company, which began in New York in 1905 and today is based in Sarasota, Fla., will spend $24 million on the project, according to its Holland Township plant manager Chris Antrup.
Antrup said he and Randy Thelen, president of the Zeeland-based economic development firm Lakeshore Advantage, have been working with the state and local governments on the deal for three years.
Locations in Arkansas and Indiana also were considered for the company's expansion, according to state documents.
The turning point came in a discussion with corporate executives about a year ago, Antrup said.
"My thought was, 'Why should we go to an unknown area and spend three times the money for a new facility when we don't even know the culture of the workforce there?,'" Antrup said. "My boss said he was beginning to feel the same way and that we might be able to get things going here."
The plan is to purchase new equipment, such as smokers, add 12,000 square feet for the processing site and more than 30,0000 square feet for distribution. The expansion will boost the company's weekly production from 1.6 million to 2.35 million pounds, Antrup said.
The state agreed to a $1 million property tax break and the township agreed to a $748,000 break for the project. The company also is likely to gain $500,000 for improvements to the wastewater treatment system.
"We agreed to hire at least 209 new people in five years in exchange for the 12 years of tax breaks," Antrup said. However, the company is more likely to hire between 240 and 250 people, he said.
Boar's Head is on Roost Avenue near East Lakewood Boulevard east of Beeline Road.
The new jobs will bring the company's Holland Township workforce to about 800. The company purchased the processing facility in 1999 after Henry House ceased operations there. Two years later the distribution center opened.
"This is going to be a huge economic boost to our area," Thelen said. "Boar's Head has proven themselves as a top employer.
"This will put them easily within the top 10 employers in our area," he said.
The average new job at the facility will pay about $662 a week.
Expansion at Boar's Head was one of a dozen announced by the state Tuesday.
"Boar's Head's decision to expand in Holland is just one example of how our economic development strategy is retaining Michigan companies and growing jobs," Gov. Jennifer Granholm said. "This expansion and the jobs it will create will strengthen Michigan's manufacturing industry sector and create the opportunity for future job growth."
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