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Saturday, June 13, 2009
Sunland Gets Incentives To Expand
By Argen Duncan
The Portales News-Tribune
PORTALES — Sunland Inc. is expanding with help from a government incentive program and plans to introduce a new peanut butter flavor and line of peanut products in the coming months.
The expansion will create at least 40 jobs over the next four years.
Work began this week to connect Sunland to the Portales city sewer system, which is important to the expansion. Interim City Manager Tom Howell said a strip of land one lot deep and about a mile long from Sunland west to Kilgore Street would be annexed to the city.
The state Economic Development Dept. contributed $156,000 to the project, with the city putting in $52,000, Howell said. Sunland CEO Jimmie Shearer said his company is paying about half of the cost.
To get the government money, Shearer said, Sunland committed to increasing its staff from 120 to 160 employees.
"Being a company that buys from the farmers and finishes the product to a retail-ready, award-winning (product), we really anticipate that we'll increase staff by more than the 40 committed," he said. "We're constantly looking at new products that we make available to our customers, and we'll be adding another peanut butter flavor to our already extensive list in the near future."
Also, Shearer said Sunland is changing the production line to accommodate the new peanut products. Both the new peanut butter flavor and the line of products should come out in the next couple of months, he said, but he wouldn't reveal details about them yet.
Sunland has worked with Roosevelt County Economic Development Corp. on the sewer line project.
Howell said the annexation allows for more possible economic development, which would bring in more tax money and jobs.
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