We were pleased to be selected to be the contractor for the Viking Paper expansion project in Plymouth. There was a blurb on the expansion in Inside Indiana Business here, but somehow they failed to mention us! Shame on them!
It is proving to be an interesting project. The building is being designed to have train cars enter the building for unloading at a recessed loading dock. This is involving some interesting logistics including some esoteric clearance requirements provided by the railroad engineers. (The ones that design railroad tracks, not the ones that blow the whistles when the trains cross the highway…) Viking works with large rolls of paper stock, so being able to offload their materials inside the building and out of the weather is valuable to them.
Jerry Chavez and Marshall County Economic Development Corporation (MCEDC) have been instrumental in helping us move this forward, both with the City of Plymouth and with the Railroad.
MCEDC has been pleased to have the Commerce Building, a new shell building in Plymouth, to market to companies considering our area. Started in 2014 and completed in 2015, the Commerce Building has been responsible for bringing many companies to Marshall County that wouldn’t have otherwise considered us. At least one new business start-up, investing millions and providing hundreds of jobs, located in Marshall County this year because of coming to see the Commerce Building. The power of having a shell building to show has proven its value to us.
Below is a press release on the relocation of Pretzels Inc. to Plymouth. A good company and a good fit for Plymouth. Now we need to figure out how to keep this momentum going forward.
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Snack Producer Plans to Add Second Indiana Facility, Create 65 New Jobs
Plymouth – Pretzels Inc., a pretzel and snack producer, announced plans today to expand its operations here, creating up to 65 new jobs by 2020.
“Here in Indiana, we have worked diligently to establish Indiana as the best place to do business by reducing regulations, cutting taxes and investing in our workforce,” said Governor Mike Pence. “Today’s news is evidence that Indiana is a state that works for companies like Pretzels Inc. as they continue to choose Indiana to grow their operations. As we enter into our third century, we will continue our economic momentum by equipping our job creators with the tools they need to succeed and creating a pro-growth business environment.”
The company, which is a pretzel and snack food private label provider, will invest approximately $15 million to purchase and equip a 45,000-square-foot facility at 2910 Commerce St. in Plymouth. The new plant, which will be the second Indiana location in addition to its Bluffton-based headquarters, will be responsible for the production of peanut butter and bulk pretzel products and will replace the company’s Pennsylvania-based manufacturing facility. Operations are expected to start at the beginning of 2017.
Pretzels Inc., which currently has 330 full-time employees at its headquarters in Bluffton, Indiana, plans to hire plant management and supervision, packagers, bakers, machine operators, quality control technicians and sanitation, maintenance and warehouse workers for its new center. Hiring will begin later this year.
“We are excited about the opportunity to build our new plant in Indiana and particularly the Plymouth area,” said Chip Mann and Steve Huggins, co-owners of Pretzels Inc., whose fathers started the business over 40 years ago. “We are lifelong Indiana residents and are pleased to continue the growth of our business in our home state.”
Founded in 1978, Pretzels Inc. is a family-owned business headquartered in Bluffton, Indiana. The company offers pretzels in over 50 shapes, 20 sizes and 900 varieties for both store brands, private labels and its own Harvest Road products. Its fastest growing product line is peanut butter filled pretzel nuggets, which will be produced at the new Plymouth-based facility.
The Indiana Economic Development Corporation offered Pretzels Inc. up to $350,000 in conditional tax credits based on the company’s job creation plans. These tax credits are performance-based, meaning until Hoosiers are hired, the company is not eligible to claim incentives. The city of Plymouth will consider additional incentives at the request of the Marshall County Economic Development Corporation.
“The City of Plymouth is proud to welcome Pretzels Inc. into our community,” said Plymouth Mayor Mark Senter. “Plymouth will see the benefits of job creation and a strengthened economy very soon thanks to a team of both state and local leaders who have come together to make this project a reality.”
The Hoosier state ranks first in the Midwest and fifth nationally for the cost of doing business and companies like Pretzels Inc. continue to choose Indiana to grow their operations. Today, one in five Hoosiers work in the manufacturing industry and more than 8,500 industry establishments are located across the state.
Indianapolis – Today, Lt. Governor Eric Holcomb announced the six communities who are the division 1 and division 2 finalists for the 2016 Stellar Communities Designation Program (SCDP).
Established in 2011, the SCDP began as a collaboration between the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority (IHCDA), Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA) and Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) to support community planning and development initiatives by streamlining access to available funding sources and capacity building resources. Through the annual designation, the Stellar Communities Designation Program provides resources for transformative quality of place community improvements by utilizing previous planning efforts, leveraging existing assets, fostering regional investments and stimulating continued growth for long-term relevance.
“Cities and towns across Indiana continue to benefit from a strong business climate that makes them attractive places to live, work, and play, and the Stellar Communities Designation Program remains an important catalyst fostering local economic growth,” said Holcomb. “I congratulate this year’s six finalists for taking this pivotal step of identifying key projects in line with their assets and visions for the future. I look forward to visiting each of the finalist communities over the next few months to see firsthand the state and local collaborations helping our hometowns thrive well into the future.”
Finalist communities are separated into a division based on their population. division 1 is for communities with populations 6,000–50,000 and division 2 is for populations 5,999 and below.
Ten communities submitted proposals for the 2016 SCDP. After evaluating the letters of interest, the top six communities were chosen as finalists.
2016 Stellar Communities Designation Program Finalists:
Division 1:
- City of Rushville (Rush)
- City of Shelbyville (Shelby)
- City of Warsaw (Kosciusko)
Division 2:
- Town of Corydon (Harrison)
- Town of Culver (Marshall)
- City of Union City (Randolph)
As finalist communities, each will receive a planning grant to either create or build upon existing local Strategic Investment Plans, detailing projects, partnerships and proposed sources of funding. Site visits will then be conducted by the Stellar Team which is comprised of representatives from the partnering agencies who follow a standard agenda and set of questions. Later this summer, one community from each division will be named a 2016 Stellar Communities Designee.
Since its inception, the SCDP partnership has grown to include:
- Indiana Arts Commission (IAC)
- Indiana Bond Bank
- Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR)
- Indiana Finance Authority (IFA)
- Indiana Office of Small Business and Entrepreneurship (OSBE)
- Indiana Office of Tourism and Development (IOTD)
- Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity (DNPA)
- Serve Indiana
While OCRA, INDOT and IHCDA have made financial commitments to the program, all eleven agencies will provide a high level of technical skills that will support leveraging the existing assets already within the community. Their efforts will focus on building human capital, supporting existing businesses, creating a spirit of entrepreneurship, redeveloping commercial property and infrastructure, preserving natural and cultural amenities and improving the health and well-being of residents, which fosters the creation of a vital destination.
Previous Stellar Communities:
- 2011 – North Vernon and Greencastle
- 2012 – Princeton and Delphi
- 2013 – Richmond and Bedford
- 2014 – Huntingburg and Wabash
- 2015 – Crawfordsville and North Liberty
Funding for the Stellar Communities Designation Program comes from multiple existing federal and state programs.
Because of my position on the Marshall County Community Foundation (MCCF) Grants Committee, I was fortunate enough to see the beginnings of the Robotics Club at Plymouth High School. I knew Principal Jim Condon as a fellow Marshall County Economic Development Corporation (MCEDC) Board Member. He introduced me to Josh Kuhn and Kennedy Schneider, two Plymouth High School students who, without the knowledge of the school, entered and won the State Vex Robotics Competition. (I found this article discussing the original team in the South Bend Tribune. I’ve embedded a link to them winning the State Championship below.) The School then helped them move on to the World competition in California. The school then applied for a grant from MCCF to start a formal robotics club the following year. I vetted the school’s grant application for a robotics program and was pleased to champion it with the MCCF Grants Committee. MCCF awarded them a significant grant to begin the program.
Coming full circle, Principal Condon told me last Friday that three years after that start-up, Plymouth High School’s Robotics Club would be hosting a northern Indiana competition on Saturday and would be fielding six teams. The event ran from 9 until 4. Due to other commitments I could only go for the afternoon. Becky and I got there about 1:30 and as it turned out, that was about right as we were in time for the to see the team selection process and the beginning of the elimination rounds.
Principal Condon was kind enough to take a few minutes to sit with us and update me on the status of the program as well as tell us a little about what we were seeing. The teams were ranked and then through a school yard pick, divided up into teams of three. The teams then competed head to head for two out of three wins in competition matches to advance to the finals.
I don’t think I could do justice to a description of the competition here. Suffice it to say it was a combination of driving skill, defense, ball collection and ball shooting skill as they collected balls around the arena and attempted to get them into the goal net. The robots shot the balls using impellers, catapults and paddles. The students were given specifications and a parts list they could use last summer and then they spent months developing CAD models of their robots. They are required to provide a detailed manual describing the design process and the construction process which is part of the judging process. At competitions they are judged on not only their competence in the arena, but on style and presentation.
I’m probably unjustified in being proud of the very small part I played in helping with this. But seeing the enthusiasm of the kids and the obvious pride they have in their efforts was heartwarming. I’ll have no problem going back to MCCF and telling them that the grant money invested in the program was well spent.