Empire Marketing Strategies
Founded: 1980
Headquarters: Blue Ash
Privately owned
Chief Executive: Danny Harris Sr.
16 regional offices throughout the U.S.
Website: www.empirefoods.com
Warren County could get 200 new jobs if a deal goes through to build a new meat processing plant there, according to state development officials.
Plans are for Blue Ash-based Empire Marketing Strategies to construct the 80,000-square-foot plant in Mason following approvals of a state incentive package. The investment would total an estimated $21.5 million, according to Stephanie Mennecke, a spokeswoman for Ohio Development Services Agency.
City and company officials said the deal has not closed yet. But the project was approved Monday for $5.5 million from the Ohio Enterprise Bond Fund and a $1.5 million 166 Direct Loan by the Ohio Development Financing Advisory Council.
In May, Empire Packing Co. was also approved for a 50 percent, six-year Ohio Job Creation Tax Credit for the creation of approximately $4.9 million in annual payroll. The company expects to create 200 full time equivalent jobs within three years, starting in 2014, according to a description of the project from the state development department.
Warren County was competing with sites in Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee for the project, also according to the state development department.
Officials at Empire Marketing Strategies declined to elaborate. The company operates under several names, including Empire Marketing, Empire Foods and and Empire Packing.
Empire is in negotiations to buy about 21 acres near the intersection of Bethany Road and Mason Montgomery Road, said Jeff Eichhorn, a senior commercial sales agent for Lebanon-based realtors and developers Henkle Schueler & Associates. Eichhorn said he represents the property’s owners, a group of investors who own approximately 85 acres at the site, an industrial business park called Mason Lakewood Commerce Center.
“My hope is that it closes in October,” Eichhorn said.
Empire Marketing is a food brokerage founded in 1980 and has 16 regional U.S. locations. It is the broker for all perishable items under The Kroger Co.’s corporate brand, according to the company’s website.
Empire has a retail-ready bakery operation and case-ready pork plant production facilities, according to state documents.
Kroger is headquartered in Cincinnati.
Recent expansions by food and beverage manufacturers in Butler and Warren counties includes Koch Foods of Fairfield and AdvancePierre Foods of West Chester Twp. AdvancePierre is Greater Cincinnati’s largest privately owned company by revenues. MillerCoors has a brewery in Trenton.
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