Gordon, SunOpta to bring 400 jobs

Two new businesses — a food processor and a trucking company — are moving to Modesto and bringing about 400 jobs with them. They'll fill the former Tri Valley Growers' Plant 1 site on Mariposa Road.

Gordon Trucking will move onto more than six acres there, where it will employ 300 people. The company currently is in Turlock, but it will close that facility so it can expand its operations at the Modesto site. The move is expected in mid-July.

"We'll be hiring more truckers, more mechanics and more people in the office," said Jim Dingman, Gordon's director of Northern California operations.

Moving in next to it will be SunOpta Inc., which will turn the old fruit cannery into a production and packaging facility for organic soy milk, almond milk and brewed tea. The company expects to employ about 50 when it opens next spring, then expand.

"I kind of feel like Santa Claus in a way because we're bringing good news," said Andy Anderson, who does special projects for SunOpta. "We're going to provide 100 jobs there in the next 24 to 30 months."

Anderson said SunOpta is investing $25 million in the plant. It has signed a long-term lease for the 180,000-square-foot building, starting this month.

"We're excited to be coming here," Anderson told the crowd Wednesday at the Valley Real Estate and Economics Conference in Modesto. He said SunOpta considered moving to Chico, Stockton and Turlock before choosing Modesto. "The cost of utilities here is extremely competitive."

Modesto also is familiar with the needs of "wet processing" manufacturers, Anderson said, which is important since SunOpta will require 6 million gallons of water per month and produce 3 million gallons of waste water per month.

SunOpta organic soy milk and alternate beverages expect to grow by 20 percent per year, according to Allan Routh, president of the SunOpta Grains and Foods Group.

"The new Modesto facility, when combined with the aseptic packaging facility in Alexandria, Minnesota, will bring total production capacity to ... 250 to 300 million quarts of soy milk and other beverages per year once the new facility is fully operational," Routh said in statement.

The Modesto plant will produce soy milk for Costco, Starbucks and other food service companies.

SunOpta initially sources and processes soy beans at facilities in Minnesota, then delivers them to processing plants that convert them into liquid concentrated soy base. That concentrate is transported to packaging facilities, such as the one being built in Modesto.

The return of a food processor to the old Tri Valley Plant 1 is good news for Modesto, according to Dr. Stephen Endsley, who heads the investment group that bought the vacant facility in February 2007.

Trucking company likes location

After Tri Valley Growers went through bankruptcy six years ago, Plant 1 was taken over by Seneca Foods. The cannery closed in 2006.

Endsley said his group paid $29.5 million for the processing plant, empty warehouses and surrounding land at 555 Mariposa Road. Since the purchase, Endsley said the warehouses have been leased to E.&J. Gallo Winery, Stanislaus Foods and Silgan Containers.

To accommodate Gordon Trucking, Endsley said, four portable buildings will be moved onto the site. The company will be provided six acres to park its trucks, plus a facility for mechanical repairs.

Dingman said the Northern San Joaquin Valley is a great spot for trucking operations because this is where major freeways intersect.

"There is a golden triangle in transportation in California, and it's between Stockton, Tracy and Modesto," Dingman told the audience at the conference. That's because trucks leaving from here are within a two-day turnaround trip to Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Portland and Southern California.

Bee staff writer J.N. Sbranti can be reached at jnsbranti@modbee.com or 578-2196.

This story was originally published June 6, 2008 at 2:44 AM with the headline "Gordon, SunOpta to bring 400 jobs."