6 years, 10 months ago by Jim Dewey
Plan to spend $65 Million on renovations
One of the largest General Mills plants in the country is about to get bigger after action Tuesday night by the Hannibal City Council.
During Tuesday's meeting - Northeast Missouri Economic Development Director George Walley asked the council to approve taxable industrial development bonds. The sale of those bonds will help General Mills complete at least 65 million dollars in renovations to the Hannibal plant. General Mills is closing a plant in New Jersey and bringing those lines to Hannibal. Walley said the project will secure General Mills' future in Hannibal, "This particular expansion is different from the previous ones in that there's an immediate surge in employment going over the next 24 months, and then there's an optimization of that employment." Walley said the fact that General Mills could not say at this time how many permanent new jobs would be created, there were no state funding programs available.
The renovations in Hannibal will include another soup line which means Hannibal will be home to all of General Mills' Progresso Soup lines. Other lines may be moved elsewhere, but the Hannibal plant will be one of, if not the largest, General Mills plants in the U. S.
General Mills currently employs about 920 workers in the Hannibal plant. That number is more than double the 400 or so workers at General Mills the last time the company chose to add to its Hannibal facility. Walley noted that the previous expansion came about because a 100 thousand square foot building was left behind when Manchester Tank consolidated in Quincy. Without that building, General Mills may not have chosen Hannibal for expansion. Walley also noted that this 65 million dollar project is a good sign that General Mills plans to stay in Hannibal for some time.
When asked if NMED was marketing the buildings housing Cosmoflex and Buckhorn Rubber, Walley said the owners of those buildings have not yet given permission to do so. Parent companies of both Cosmoflex and Buckhorn announced earlier that they are consolidating out of Hannibal, but both buildings are still in use.
