Perry’s Frito-Lay plant to get $105 million expansion

PERRY -- Frito-Lay plans to pour millions of dollars into its Perry manufacturing plant, expanding the company’s largest producer.

The Houston County Development Authority approved a $105 million bond issue Wednesday to add new production lines there.

The changes are expected to result in no net increase in jobs but will lead to more training for the roughly 1,346 employees at the facility, said Cynthia Baker, a Frito-Lay spokeswoman.

“It’s definitely an investment and an upgrade for this facility, and it’s a reflection of the plant’s performance,” she said.

The plant expects to open a kettle chip line by the end of the year and a Cheetos manufacturing line next year, Baker said. Meanwhile, other production lines will be upgraded.

Craig Hoffman, the Frito-Lay plant engineer, said the kettle chip production line will be the company’s first in the United States.

Angie Gheesling, executive director of the Houston County Development Authority, said the authority had been in talks with Frito-Lay nearly two years. Discussions started with a “good project and ended up with a wow project,” she told authority members. She told The Telegraph that initial discussions revolved around an $8 million investment, making the wait for the full $105 million project well worth it.

Mark Byrd, chairman of the Houston County Development Authority, hosted Wednesday’s meeting at his Houston Lake Country Club, with Frito-Lay officials and a representative from Frito-Lay’s parent company, PepsiCo.

“It is a very special day. I don’t imagine there are many communities that are celebrating this kind of economic impact around Georgia, or the United States, or the world, for that matter,” he said. “It’s a really exciting time to be partners with Frito, PepsiCo here.”

The bonds could close in Houston County Superior Court by mid-November, said Jim Woodward, an Atlanta-based attorney representing the development authority.

The authority will own the equipment and lease it to Frito-Lay for 13 years, which then could buy it. No tax money is at stake.

“All the liability is on the company,” Woodward said.

Gheesling said tax incentives are built into the effort, with equipment being fully taxed 10 years after it’s installed. The value of those tax incentives was not immediately available Wednesday.

Some $37 million in investment is expected by the end of the year, and most of the rest in 2015, said Kathy Alfano, senior director of economic development for PepsiCo.

Hoffman said the local support has been critical, with accessible officials and good support through utilities and infrastructure. Some training began over the summer at Central Georgia Technical College, and the development authority put up $5,000 to help launch the training.

Development authority members repeatedly used the phrase “unprecedented cooperation.” Hoffman said he had talked to another community that literally gave him five minutes of time before escorting him out of the building, while Houston County officials would clear their slates to work with Frito-Lay.

Larry Lighthiser, a regional vice president for Frito-Lay, said the plant mostly produces snack foods for Georgia and Florida. Baker said the plant now makes about 300 million pounds of snack food per year.

The Perry plant went into production in 1988. It was named the 2014 Chairman’s Circle of Champions Showcase Plant, the only such plant in all of the PepsiCo companies, Baker said.

To contact writer Mike Stucka, call 744-4251.

This story was originally published October 29, 2014 at 5:17 PM with the headline "Perry’s Frito-Lay plant to get $105 million expansion ."