SANGER (KMJ) — Ground has been officially broken at Initiative Foods in Sanger, just over two years after a devastating fire swept through the site.
Following the blaze in July 2016, the baby food company wrote on Facebook that the facility would be rebuilt. Friday’s groundbreaking was a step towards fulfilling that promise. The public ceremony was attended by employees, dignitaries, and representatives of the City of Sanger.
“Take a look at this piece of earth,” asked company President John Ypma. “In a few months, we are going to have a state of the art food manufacturing facility.
“It will be the most up to date facility in the world.”
Ypma’s comments were interrupted by a spontaneous round of applause.
“Go ahead,” he encouraged, letting a cheer erupt from the crowd. “We’re also going to have some of the most modern food processing equipment out there.”
The new 30,000 square feet plant will be constructed at 1945 Industrial Way in Sanger and is set to include baby food production, cold storage, laboratory, and office space.
After a massive fire in 2016, Sanger's Initiative Foods is today breaking ground on a new site. President and owner John Ypma says a "state of the art food manufacturing facility" is coming. More on @KMJNOW. pic.twitter.com/FzJ5mkL1L3
— Dom McAndrew (@DomMcAndrew) October 12, 2018
Ypma asked members of his team to stop and consider what they have already achieved.
“This is really a bright day. This is much better than where we were before. Today, we look at where we’ve been. We’ve been through difficult times. We’ve been through sad times and we’ve been through successful times.
“We’ve had our disappointments and we’ve had our joys. And we’ll still have some challenging times. But if you stop and look today, and look at what we’ve accomplished and where we have gone, and listen to the people that said I don’t know if they are going to be able to make it – but we did.
“You are the doers. You’re the ones that made this happen.”
The company said the new facility will, at full capacity, be able to produce over 100 million units of baby food a year.
Hear the report from KMJ’s Dominic McAndrew as it aired:
