|
MassDevelopment In The News
Food Company Coming to Haverhill
February 11, 2007: The Eagle-Tribune, by Jason Tait
HAVERHILL - A Chelsea company that makes pizzas, desserts and salads is moving to a building on West Lowell Avenue - making an addition to the city's growing food-manufacturing base.
To pay for the move, Silver Spoon Salad Co. is getting a $2.5 million loan from MassDevelpment, a government agency that helps promote business development in the Bay State.
The company will create 30 new jobs in Haverhill and move its 20 current employees to the local facility, said co-owner Ronald Tomacchio, a Methuen native living in Hampstead, N.H.
Mayor James Fiorentini said Silver Spoon fits in nicely with other food-producing companies in the city, including Cedar's Mediterranean Foods, Hans Kissel, General Foods and Joseph's Pasta.
Silver Spoon is a "significant addition to our food-manufacturing cluster and a great opportunity for more jobs and more tax revenue for our community," Fiorentini said.
Silver Spoon needs more manufacturing space than its Chelsea facility can provide.
The company's new location - the former Haverhill Gazette building - is a perfect spot, a few hundred yards from the River Street interchange onto Interstate 495, Tomacchio said.
It also has plenty of room for trucks to maneuver, and will make for a much shorter commute for the owners, Tomacchio said. His business partner, John O'Leary, lives in Methuen.
"It's such a nice location," Tomacchio said. "It's just going to be so comfortable for the employees."
Silver Spoon is filling a building that has been vacant since the Gazette staff moved three years ago to a downtown building on Merrimack Street.
The $2.5 million loan will be used to buy the building for about $1.9 million and make $550,000 worth of renovations, according to MassDevelopment. The move will also cost $70,000 in fees and other expenses.
Silver Spoon is buying the building from Ronald Auclair, who bought it from the Gazette's parent company, Eagle Tribune Publishing, in 2005, according to city assessing records. The building's assessed value is $1.47 million.
Silver Spoon was founded in 1998 and has close to $10 million in sales each year. Its food is sold at several stores, including B.J.'s Wholesale Club, Hannaford's Supermarkets and Trader Joe's.
Tomacchio said Silver Spoon makes about 20,000 pizzas a week, and sells seafood salad, chicken salad and other deli items to Shaw's Supermarket.
Fiorentini will recommend a tax break for Silver Spoon valued at about $300 per year. Such tax breaks are available to companies that expand and offer manufacturing jobs in Massachusetts.
© Copyright 2007 The Eagle-Tribune.
|
|
