LYSANDER — Agrana Fruit US, Inc. is now operating its fourth U.S. fruit-preparation plant at 8864 Sixty Road in Lysander in northwest Onondaga County. Agrana on May 15 hosted an event at the plant to formally open the facility. The firm in March 2013 had announced plans to invest more than $50 million to build […]
LYSANDER — Agrana Fruit US, Inc. is now operating its fourth U.S. fruit-preparation plant at 8864 Sixty Road in Lysander in northwest Onondaga County.
Agrana on May 15 hosted an event at the plant to formally open the facility. The firm in March 2013 had announced plans to invest more than $50 million to build the facility and create about 120 jobs.
The Lysander area provided the proper infrastructure, Robert Prendes, president and CEO of Agrana Fruit US, Inc., said in his comments to reporters following the event.
“They [Lysander officials] had the gas. They had the water and sewer. In our business, you consume a lot of those things and you need to make sure that if you’re going to put [in] an investment, that it’s capable of handling your growth,” Prendes said.
Agrana also has the ability to expand to handle 100 million pounds of fruit within the current structure and can add another 50 million pounds, if desired, he added.
In addition to Lysander, Agrana also operates fruit-processing facilities in Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas.
Agrana chose a 29-acre site in Lysander for its latest plant for production and distribution because of its close proximity to the Northeast corridor of the U.S. and Canada, which it views as a “growing hub” for dairy manufacturers, the firm said in a news release.
Agrana always likes to be close to its clients, Johannes Kleppers, board chairman of the firm’s fruit division, told reporters after the event.
“We have a lot of clients in this area, also including Canada. It’s a place where most of the milk is, [along with] our clients making milk products [and] yogurt products, and therefore it’s the right place to be,” Kleppers said.
Between 2005 and 2011, the amount of milk used to make yogurt in New York increased from 158 million pounds to about 1.2 billion pounds, Kenneth Adams, president and CEO of Empire State Development, said in his remarks during Agrana’s event.
The company’s $50 million, 107,000-square-foot plant will provide fruit preparations in support of growth in the yogurt industry.
“This is the biggest investment in the history of the Agrana fruit division, so for us, it’s a … milestone of our business and [our] U.S. business is growing very fast,” Kleppers said.
The new plant starts production with 60 employees, but “we’ll be at 120 hopefully in the next three years,” Prendes said.
Increased consumer demand for Greek yogurt has generated change and growth in the yogurt industry, Agrana said.
Agrana considers itself a “a big part of the finished product,” Prendes said.
“In Greek yogurt, we’re 20 percent of the cup of yogurt usually because the dosage rate is 20 percent.”
In his remarks during the opening event, Prendes said Agrana’s love for fruit begins with its “global sourcing.”
“We have seven, eight different factories around that do what we call first transformation work, which is going into the field, bringing fruits to our factories, and cleaning them, freezing them, and then sending them to a second transformation,” Prendes said.
He referred to the Lysander operation as a “second-transformation facility.”
Agrana will eventually have four lines operational.
“We’re going to put our third line in this year, and we look for the fourth one the following year,” Prendes said, calling them “ambitious goals.”
Financial package
The financial package from New York state included “various incentives,” according to Prendes.
“From sales-tax abatements to different incentives based on the number of people we hire … all of that is linked to whether we deliver on our commitments to the state,” Prendes said.
New York provided Agrana with a $600,000 grant from Empire State Development and $2 million in Excelsior tax credits, according to the New York governor’s office.
Agrana Fruit US, headquartered near Cleveland, Ohio, is part of Vienna, Austria–based Agrana Group, which produces sugar, starch, fruit preparation, juice concentrate, and ethanol.
Agrana Group generates annual revenue of $4 billion and employs about 8,000 people at 56 sites in 26 countries around the world.
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com