Kemper Foods gets city of New Albany backing

By DANIEL SUDDEATH
Daniel.Suddeath@newsandtribune.com

July 02, 2009 02:00 pm

— The path toward becoming the first company to locate at Grant Line Industrial Park West was made a little easier for Kemper Foods International LLC on Wednesday.
The New Albany Redevelopment Commission approved allocating $625,000 from its Park East tax-increment financing district to back a loan for Kemper. The company is taking out the loan locally in order to expand its operation and buy new machinery, which will allow Kemper to create 50 jobs by the end of the year.
Kemper specializes in breakfast foods, and the company hopes to begin serving enough companies to justify a move to Grant Line West by the end of 2010. The industrial park should be completed next year.
If all goes well, Kemper could hire 1,000 workers at the Grant Line West plant to meet demand.
The commission’s approval — defined as the fourth piece of the puzzle by Deputy Mayor Carl Malysz as the New Albany City Council already OK’d the loan backing — means $625,000 of TIF money will stay in an interest-bearing account until Kemper pays back the loan.
If Kemper fails on the seven-year loan, the city would be on the hook for up to $625,000.
With many companies laying off workers, Malysz said the jobs Kemper could bring to New Albany are the main benefit of backing the loan.
“That seems to be an industry that wasn’t slammed by the crummy economy,” he said.
Owner Mike Kemper said the hourly wages for line workers would range from $11 to $14 per hour, and added the salary packages for managers would be competitive.
Kemper International was courted by other cities, which made Wednesday’s definitive action important for the company to be able to move forward with its plans.
“We need to launch and we need to launch now,” Kemper said.
The rest of 2009 will be a trial run for Kemper International with its new machinery, Kemper said. They will be out to prove the company can mass produce with the new equipment in order to secure contracts with investors.
Kemper said because of confidentiality agreements, he could not disclose some of the major clients looking to strike a deal with the food producer.