 Baking plant to expand as city eyes more growth
Project to add 50 jobs
Published March 19, 2005.
Reprinted with permission of the Rankin Ledger
By Joshua Cogswell
jcogswell@rankinledger.com
Mississippi Baking Co. is planning an $8 million expansion that will bring at least 50 new jobs to Pelahatchie.
"Pelahatchie is a great location because of its accessibility to I-20," said Steve Warden, director of operations for Mid-South Baking, owner of Mississippi Baking. "The town's leaders had a real willingness to work with us."
Warden said he is not sure when work will begin on the new building, but said his company is in the process of acquiring eight acres of land just to the east of the plant.
"We hope to be up and running by the end of the year, but there are a lot of details that need to be worked out," Warden said.
Mississippi Baking is the second major employer in the last three months to announce more jobs would be coming to the town of 1,500 in eastern Rankin County.
In December, Multicraft Trillium, a company that makes parts for the auto industry, announced that it was relocating a plant and 200 employees to a 70,000 square-foot facility in Pelahatchie. The plant began operating last month.
Mississippi Baking is planning to build a nearly 30,000-square-foot facility on eight acres of land just east of its current 50,000-square-foot plant.
Mayor Knox Ross said the city will do some infrastructure improvements to roads surrounding the plant.
A road that runs east of the plant will be relocated to the west side of the plant.
The road work will cost about $529,000, Ross said. The town is applying for a $500,000 grant from the Mississippi Development Authority to pay most of the road construction costs.
The city will also have to move a sewer lift station and do minor water work, Ross said.
"Mississippi Baking has been a really good corporate citizen since they've been here," Ross said. "They provide good quality jobs that pay above market wage. We're trying to give opportunities to people to work good jobs here."
The Pelahatchie plant's 126 employees bake and ship hamburger buns to more than 1,200 McDonald's locations in the Southeast, Warden said. The plant makes buns for hamburgers, Big Macs and Quarter Pounders, he said.
The new facility will enable the company to do about 75 percent more business from Pelahatchie, Warden said.
When Mid-South Baking opened its Pelahatchie location 10 years ago, Warden said, the bakery was one of the fastest in the country. About 1,000 buns pass through the plant's ovens each minute, Warden said.
The bakery is equipped with a laser scanner that instantly spots defects in seven different categories —from color to distribution of sesame seeds — and knocks subpar buns off the conveyer belt.
Warden said to expect the same at the new facility.
"The new facility won't be as large, but it will incorporate some of the new technology," Warden said.
|
