The facility will be primarily used for expansion of the company’s lactate and other food ingredient manufacturing capacity within its industrial group, with the water treatment group using the location as a branch office for its operations as it expands its geographic coverage. It is expected that the facility will be fully operational in the summer of 2009.
John R. Hawkins, Hawkins CEO, said, “We have enjoyed significant growth in the volumes of our manufactured specialty food products. As we searched for new capacity and strived to be closer to our raw material suppliers and customers for this product line, we are pleased to have found this existing structure in this strategic location. This acquisition will ultimately allow us to free up capacity at our Minneapolis site for other business growth opportunities.”