Flowers Foods: builds 200’000-square-foot bakery in Kentucky

Thomasville / GA. (ff) Flowers Foods Inc. plans to build a 52 million USD, 200’000-square-foot bakery in Kentucky that will serve markets in Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana. The company says it has reached a tentative agreement to buy 30 acres from the Bardstown Industrial Development Corporation and Nelson County Fiscal Court.

The deal includes an option to purchase an additional 24 acres, according to a news release. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Construction is expected to begin in January, and the bakery is scheduled to open in fall 2008. It will create nearly 150 jobs with an average annual wage of 39’000 USD.

«Bardstown is strategically located at the northern part of our current market territory for our fresh baked foods and this bakery will help serve new markets as we expand northward», says George E. Deese, chairman, CEO and president of Flowers Foods. «The added capacity will also help relieve production pressure at our other bakeries».

Flowers Foods currently operates 36 bakeries that produce breads, buns, rolls, snack cakes and pastries under brands such as Nature´s Own, Cobblestone Mill, Sunbeam, Blue Bird and Mrs. Freshley´s.

The Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority preliminarily approved Flowers Foods for up to two million USD in tax benefits under the Kentucky Industrial Development Act, an incentive program designed to attract and expand manufacturing operations in the state.

The project also was preliminarily approved for up to 400’000 USD in benefits under the Kentucky Enterprise Initiative Act, which allows companies investing 500’000 USD or more in the state to recoup Kentucky sales and use tax on the cost of construction materials, building fixtures and equipment used for research and development.

Conversions: square foot – metres – acres

200’000 square foot = 18’580 square metres
1 square foot = 0,09290304 square metres
24 acres = 97’124,55413 square meters or 9,712455413 hectare
1 acre = 4’046,8564224 square meters or 0,40468564224 hectare