Craig Anderson, CFO for Pretzels Inc. was present at the public hearing for their Tax Abatement request and gave a brief background of the company.
Pretzels Inc. was founded in 1978 in Bluffton by Bill Mann and Bill Huggins. Their current facility in Bluffton is 200,000 square feet with 330 employees. Craig noted that 7 million pounds of pretzels have been produced this year in Bluffton.
In 2011 Pretzels Inc. opened a second plant in Pennsylvania and manufactured peanut-butter filled pretzels. Anderson explained, due to the allergy issues with nuts they keep the peanut-butter filled pretzels in a separate facility.
Just as they were getting ready for an expansion in Pennsylvania a fire broke out in the plant they were leasing on June 4th of this year and it burned to the ground. Within days the board of directors decided to rebuild but wanted to be closed to the corporate plant and flour vendors. The site selectors looked in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana with Plymouth being the site of choice.
Pretzels Inc. purchased the Commerce Building on September 15th. Construction is expected to be complete by January 1st with equipment installation completed by mid February and production by March 1st.
Total investment for Pretzels Inc. is $18 million through 2018, $6 million for the build-out and $12 million in equipment.
The City Council passed the resolution confirming an 8 year 100% tax abatement for new real estate and personal property for Pretzels Inc.
