Idaho Satisfies Food Industry Appetites

The food processing industry's yen for Idaho is no small potatoes. And nowhere is that more evident than Jerome, the Twin Falls satellite community just north of two important tributaries: I-84 and the Snake River.
        In May, Rite Stuff Foods went the way of many California companies, choosing a new home just slightly to the east. In this case, it's to an 100,000-sq.-ft. (9,290-sq.-m.) facility in Jerome, which company leaders envision as the locus of an expected 20-percent growth spurt in 2003, expanding product lines and its customer base for its Idaho potato products at the same pace the company did in 2002. But as many have long observed, the location of the company leader is often of prime importance.
        "With our Jerome office expanding its product line and Rite Stuff's owner moving from California to Seattle, streamlining operations here in Jerome just made good business sense," says Blake Chapman, general manager for the Jerome plant. He says much of the company's investment is in new line equipment, although bumped-up production over the past year has already added about 10 positions (bringing the plant payroll to around 100). In addition, the relocation of a handful of California personnel has meant the hiring of several staff members. The company first located to Jerome in 1998, after leasing facilities in Los Angeles for the previous eight years.
        Earlier in the year, WOW Logistics Co. launched a new 232,650-sq.-ft. (21,613-sq.-m.) facility in Jerome with the welcome announcement that an additional 70,000 sq. ft. (6,503 sq. m.) would be added on by the end of the year. There's still the potential for 150,000 sq. ft. (13,935 sq. m.) to be added to that footprint, if the food industry customers they serve continue to follow the Appleton, Wis.-based company's Idaho example.