Luigino's puts the Kibosh on New Frozen Foods Plant in West Virginia

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Family owned, Luigino's Incorporated (Duluth, Minnesota), makers of frozen Italian & Chinese dinner lines Michelina's and Yu Sing's, has again cancelled plans to construct their third manufacturing plant in Parkersburg, West Virginia.

As mentioned back in an Industrialinfo.com press release dating back to December 17, 2002, initial groundwork and site clearing began at the site located in Parkersburg and Stockmeister Enterprises (Jackson, Ohio) had been selected as the general contractor for the $36 million project. The 250,000 square foot plant was also going to bring about 600 much-needed new jobs to the Wood county area as well.

A company issued press release stated that Luigino's "has discontinued plans to build a food processing in Parkersburg" and no real reason was given. Sources close to the development of the project told Industrialinfo.com the site they had purchased may be contaminated by a C8 or ammonium perfluorooctanoate plume that originated at a near by closed DuPont plant. The company may have been concerned that its competitors would use this information against products being produced at the plant.

The C8 contamination story has not been confirmed and the company may just be using that as an excuse not to build in West Virginia. Luigino's may be looking at a new site for their third plant in Wellston, Ohio near their existing plant in Jackson.

The road into the site called Jeno's Drive will be changed and the street sign removed.

Luigino's was founded by Luigino "Jeno" F. Paulucci, who created several other business success stories in his career beginning in the 1940s with Chun King Corporation, which he sold 20 years later to R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company for $63 million. Another Paulucci enterprise, Jeno's Incorporated, was sold to The Pillsbury Company before he launched Luigino's Incorporated in 1990.