Mart Frozen Foods Opens $65M Potato Facility in Southern Idaho
Mart Frozen Foods , a subsidiary of The Mart Group, cut the ribbon today (Oct. 2) on a $65 million manufacturing facility in Rupert, Idaho. The new 100,000-sq.-ft. plant produces and packages frozen, fully baked Idaho potatoes known as OH!Tatoes.
The new facility will create 80 full-time jobs, bringing the company's total employment in Rupert to more than 230 people. The Mart Group is a family of grower-owned operations delivering sustainably farmed potato products to grocers, distributors and wholesalers across the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
OH!Tatoes will be the first-of-its-kind whole baked frozen potato available to consumers in North America. "This expansion allows us to vertically integrate to provide the unmatched quality of baked Idaho potatoes in an easier format, with a longer shelf life, than ever before," said Julian Critchfield, president and CEO of The Mart Group.
The area, known as Magic Valley, also is home to plants of Chobani, Clif Bar, McCain Foods and others.
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Dave Fusaro
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Dave Fusaro has served as editor in chief of Food Processing magazine since 2003. Dave has 30 years experience in food & beverage industry journalism and has won several national ASBPE writing awards for his Food Processing stories. Dave has been interviewed on CNN, quoted in national newspapers and he authored a 200-page market research report on the milk industry. Formerly an award-winning newspaper reporter who specialized in business writing, he holds a BA in journalism from Marquette University. Prior to joining Food Processing, Dave was Editor-In-Chief of Dairy Foods and was Managing Editor of Prepared Foods.