Canada-based Leclerc Foods will add a second Kingsport, Tenn., production facility and establish its U.S. headquarters there with an investment of $49 million, according to the Kingsport (Tenn.) Times-News.
The new facility will create 105 new jobs and should be operational in mid-2017. The building will include a new manufacturing line for gluten-free granola bars plus warehousing and distribution space as well as the U.S. headquarters offices.
The building formerly housed C&F Manufacturing, a maker of tooling, near Tri-Cities Airport. The Kingsport Economic Development Board (KEDB) procured the building and sold it to Leclerc for $2.5 million, plus a seven-year payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement whereby 80 percent of the taxes on the property will be paid to KEDB with remaining 20 percent being a savings to the company.
Leclerc Foods, based in Quebec, has more than 650 employees in six facilities. It already employs 100 in the existing Kingsport plant, which produces crackers and cookies, and will continue to operate that facility, which opened in 2008 and has undergone two expansions.
