Ditsch Creates a $70 Million Pretzel Factory Outside Cincinnati

German processor Ditsch USA has created a $70 million pretzel factory, its second in that area, in a former Costco building in Springdale, Ohio. The company said it would be adding 150 jobs in the next two years to the 180 people the company already employs locally.

Local media and government officials attended the ribbon-cutting Oct. 23. The parent company, based in Germany, bought Cincinnati-area’s Pretzel Baron, itself a successor to a pretzel-maker called Servatii.

In 2017, Ditsch effectively acquired Pretzel Baron under the umbrella of the Valora Group, headquartered in Switzerland, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. Its first Springdale plant kept producing pretzels, eventually expanding to three production lines.

Pretzel Baron pretzels are still available in the frozen food section of many grocery stores, but the company's main focus is sales to restaurants, where the pretzels can be used as a foundation for other creative dishes, Ditsch USA CEO Thorsten Schroeder told the Enquirer.

The original plant continues to operate. The new expansion has space for nine more production lines. A few will begin operating soon, but Schroeder said he expects all nine lines to be running by 2030. Ditsch's two German facilities have 14 lines between them.

The Enquirer noted part of the production is devoted to pretzel bites – although only made in the U.S., Europeans are quickly falling in love with them, and they’re being exported across the Atlantic.