 $8M expansion: Bunch of buns
Published June 17, 2005.
Reprinted with permission of The Clarion Ledger.
Link to LIVE article
Mississippi Baking Co. to add 75 workers once Pelahatchie plant enlarged, official says
By Arnold Lindsay
alindsay@clarionledger.com
Mississippi Baking Co. will begin laying the groundwork Monday for 75 more jobs.
The Pelahatchie business, which bakes 100,000 dozen hamburger buns per day for 1,200 McDonald's restaurants, will almost double its size, adding 31,526 square feet to the 48,000-square-feet facility by October.
Infrastructure work began weeks ago on the $7 million to $8 million addition, said Jack Ballard of Johnson Bailey Henderson McNeel Architects, which is working in tandem with Yates Construction Co. on the project.
People interested in employment at the plant are asked to apply through the Mississippi Department of Employment Security, said plant manager Tom Shuler.
The company, which currently has 125 employees, expects to begin hiring in September. Entry-level wages for maintenance workers will be about $12 per hour; production workers start at $9. The company benefits include vacation and health insurance.
"We're a good month away from interviewing," Shuler said. "We want to do a lot of training with them, do some orientation work and set them up to be successful, if you will. September, October, we're going to start pulling in people."
Pelahatchie Mayor Knox Ross said the city of 1,400 will gain from the expansion. The additional workers traveling through the city could give economic developers numbers to justify future investments. Local merchants could see profits increase as well.
"They'll buy lunch here, they buy gas and they buy groceries. The truckers spend money on diesel," Ross said. "As you have more trucks, you have more traffic, you have more people. As you attract more people, you become more enticing to retail (growth)." Larry Mobley, assistant director of Rankin First Economic Development Authority, said Mississippi Baking Co. will receive some tax incentives, but details haven't been finalized.
Rankin First and Pelahatchie officials helped secure $650,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds from the Mississippi Development Authority for work to facilitate the expansion.
The 10-year-old plant operates 24 hours per day, six days a week, and has constant truck traffic, Shuler said. Ross said Mississippi Baking Co.'s purchase of six additional acres next to its site is an indication the company plans to stick around for many more years to come.
The mayor said the city is content growing a step at a time.
"That's kind of been our strategy. You're sort of in a Catch-22. You have to have people to attract retail. You either do that by attracting housetops or attracting people," Ross said. "What you're hoping through that is the housetops will follow.
"There is a method to it. It's imperfect, too, because you don't have a crystal ball. You take advantage of what your strengths are."
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