Harvest States Prepares Groundwork for New Carolina Facility

---

Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Harvest States Foods (St Paul, Minnesota) and privately held parent company Cenex Harvest States Cooperatives (St. Paul, Minnesota) are preparing the groundwork to construct a new facility in North Carolina.

The company currently operates two plants in North Carolina, a corn and flour tortilla plant in Newton and a corn chip plant in Claremont, and plans to build a new facility in Newton to consolidate the two operations under one roof.

Plans are to construct a 108,000 square foot production building and relocate processing and packaging lines from the existing operations as well as add new equipment to increase output of both products.

Engineering firm Karges-Faulconbridge Incorporated (St. Paul, Minnesota) has been selected to provide design engineering for the project and the local North Carolina construction outfit of Mathews Construction Company, Incorporated (Conover, North Carolina) will act as the general contractor.

Groundbreaking for the $12 million project is expected to happen within the next 30 days and the new facility should be completed and operational by the third quarter of 2003.

The new plant, located near Highway 16 and P Street in Newton, North Carolina, will produce corn and flour tortillas and fried corn tortilla chips for retail and foodservice customers along the Eastern seaboard.

Harvest State Foods is a leading provider of flour and corn tortillas, tortilla chips, and prepared Mexican foods to retail and foodservice customers across the country with annual sales exceeding $75 million. They operate processing facilities in suburban Minneapolis, Minneapolis; Newton, North Carolina; Ft. Worth, Texas; and Phoenix, Arizona.

Harvest States Foods is a part of Harvest States, the integrated grains and foods division of CHS Cooperatives, a producer-to-consumer cooperative system owned by farmers, ranchers, and their local cooperatives from the Great Lakes to the Pacific Northwest, and from the Canadian border to Texas.