Blount Fine Foods is opening a prepared foods manufacturing facility in Portland, Oregon, as demand for premium soups increases.
The company has purchased the 80,000 sq ft facility which previously served as the HW of Harry’s Fresh Foods.
The additional space provides greater production capacity for the company’s premium soups and side dishes for retail and foodservice.
It adds the company’s networking of production facilities, which includes its headquarters in Fall River, Mass. as well as facilities in Warren, R.I. and McKinney, Tex.
“Market demand for all soups, but especially our premium soups, continues to increase, with flavours, sizes, and eating occasions creating more opportunity for our customers,” said Todd Blount, President and Chief Executive of Blount Fine Foods.
“Adding this facility meaningfully rounds out our nationwide network of plants and distribution points and allows us to get the best ingredients to the ideal plant, and then ship the highest quality product on to the customer in the most efficient manner possible. In many ways, we hope this equates to an endless and uninterrupted supply of the world’s best soup.”
By the time Blount brings the new facility online in time for the next soup season, which begins in July, the company expects to invest more than $25 million to ensure it is truly state-of-the-art.
It will add all new processing equipment, including a cutting-edge ‘spiral hydro chiller’ for quick-chilling soups to lock in freshness, as well as proprietary cooking kettles that are both large enough for production efficiencies yet small enough to allow soup to be made largely by hand in small batches.
Blount expects to employ about 50 people when the facility first opens in the second half of 2020.
