The Vandalia plant will produce more than 16,000 hamburgers per hour per production line when complete, said Rob Camp, vice president and general manager of White Castle Food Products.
An effusive Ohio Gov. John Kasich all but guaranteed that the company — which has operated since 1921 — will in time employ more than 100 people at the site.
“They’re not going to tell you that” Kasich told a standing-room audience at a Vandalia fire station off Peters Pike, where a fast-moving thunderstorm forced the plant’s groundbreaking ceremony to take shelter. “But I’m going to tell you that.”
“We hope so,” said Bill Ingram III, White Castle chief executive. “That’s the plan.”
The facility, which should be completed by the summer of 2013, has been funded with $300,000 in Montgomery County Economic Development/Government Equity funds, $10 million in Ohio Enterprise Bond funds and $2 million in an Ohio 166 direct loan. In addition, the Dayton-Montgomery County Port Authority will own the land off Peters Pike where White Castle will build, leasing the site back to the company.
Ingram said Ohio and local agencies have been “cooperative.”
But Kasich and other local officials pointed to location and infrastructure, agreeing that it’s difficult to put a price tag on being near the intersection of interstates 75 and 70. The Vandalia plant will be centrally located for White Castle, west of a meat processing plant in Zanesville, north of a bakery in the Cincinnati area and east of two additional processing plants in Indiana.
“If you want to distribute things, you need to be here in Ohio,” Kasich said. He reminded the audience of Abbot Laboratories’ April groundbreaking for a $270 million nutritional drinks facility in Tipp City, which Kasich said was Abbot’s first significant investment in the United States since 1984.
Joe Tuss, interim Montgomery County administrator, also credited infrastructure and investment planning by county and local leaders. Jeff Hoagland, president and CEO of the Dayton Development Coalition, recalled how the city of Vandalia bought what was 200 acres of a cornfield six years ago with an eye to this kind of future development.
“It was kind of like the field of dreams,” said Hoagland, a former Vandalia city manager.
The plant will include a main production floor for raw and cooked food, raw material freezer, temperating freezer, packing room, warehouse, U.S. Department of Agriculture office, offices and more.
Ohio is home to 57 White Castle restaurants, two manufacturing plants, a bakery and meat processing plant and nearly 1,500 employees.
About the Author
