Three cheese companies are planning to expand their Sheboygan County facilities, which will create hundreds of new jobs.
Plymouth-based Sargento Foods Inc. is expanding its Plymouth, Hilbert and Kiel facilities, and will create a total of 500 new jobs over the next five years. The company currently has 1,140 employees at the three locations.
Sargento packages and markets cheese products, produces custom cheese products and provides custom cheese products for other food manufacturers. The company is adding a 60,000-square-foot expansion to its Kiel plant, which will be complete in May. It will build a 52,000-square-foot addition to its plant in Hilbert. The company also recently completed an expansion of the shipping and receiving area at the Plymouth plant and is remodeling the offices in the Plymouth facility.
The State of Wisconsin is providing $3 million in tax credits and another $1.25 million in assistance for the Sargento expansions.
“We need to make investments to grow now, to keep moving forward,” Gov. Jim Doyle said in announcing the state assistance for Sargento.
Sartori Foods Corp., another Plymouth-based cheese maker, plans to build a 110,000-square-foot plant on 24 acres north of Highway PP and halfway between Highway 57 and Willow Road. The Sartori facility will be the first tenant in the city’s new South Industrial Park. The company’s future plans for the facility also includes a 130,000-square-foot second phase and a 100,000-square-foot third phase.
Plymouth-based Masters Gallery Foods Inc., a leader in the private label, retail and food service cheese business, plans to build an $8 million addition to its Plymouth packaging and distribution plant.
The expansion, which could create up to 40 new local jobs, would double the size of the company’s facility at 411 County Highway PP and enhance the firm’s production, warehousing and shipping/distribution capabilities.
