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The company that produces Carvel ice cream cakes in New Britain is about to start a $21 million expansion that will boost its payroll by as much as 50%.
Rich Products Corp. will add a manufacturing line, warehousing, freezer space and more behind its existing plant along Myrtle Street.
The Buffalo, New York-based multinational had considered other sites, including at least one in another state, before deciding to expand its New Britain location.
“I was thrilled that they chose New Britain. I think they see the value in our workforce,” Mayor Erin Stewart said Monday. “They built a beautiful, impressive plan at the old Fafnir Bearings property that opened in 2018. Now they’re expanding.”
The city and state expect to provide tax incentives for Rich Products Corp. to enlarge its factory and warehouse space by about 53,000 square feet.
Celebration Foods built the original plant 15 years ago on the long-vacant Fafnir site, a development so important to the city that then-Gov M. Jodi Rell traveled to New Britain for the grand opening ceremony.
At the time, Rell praised the project for adding manufacturing jobs in the heart of the city and preserving undeveloped land by redeveloping the 13-acre Fafnir property, which had been derelict for two decades.
At the time, Celebration was producing licensed ice cream products for Carvel, including the chain’s signature Fudgie The Whale as well as Cookie Puss, Hug Me The Bear and others.
The modern 120,000-square-foot factory won the “Plant of the Year” award from Food Engineering magazine, and almost immediately was operating with multiple work shifts.
Celebration was acquired in 2011 by Rich Products, a $4 billion-a-year business with bakery, seafood, pizza, dessert toppings and other subsidiaries. The privately held company reports a workforce of 11,000 in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and elsewhere.
Rich retained the 138,000-square-foot New Britain plant, which has about 200 employees and still manufactures ice cream cakes for Carvel. As of Monday, the company was advertising five vacancies ranging from a personnel department position to second- and third-shift cake decorators and assemblers.
The city and Rich expect payroll will climb by between 50 and 100 jobs by the the time the expansion is complete. The company this fall plans to start constructing 27,000 square feet of warehouse, a 9,000-square-foot freezer addition, and a two-story section to accommodate palletized distribution.
The expansion will use space mostly on the north end of its land, closest to Orange Street.
The original Celebration Foods development got a 10-year tax phase-in incentive from the city; Stewart said the plant has been paying 100% of its assessed taxes since 2018.
The new expansion qualifies for Enterprise Zone incentives, and Rich’s assessment will be frozen at $8.4 million for up to 10 years.
The council last week unanimously referred the agreement to a committee, and expects to formally approve it shortly.
Stewart said long-term tax revenues as well as immediate job creation make it a good deal for the city. Getting Rich Products to invest in New Britain will also make it easier to recruit other companies to expand in the city or relocate there.
“It says a lot about the business-friendly climate we’ve been able to foster here,” Stewart said. “They’re saying they trust the city’s finances are stabilized, and they feel more comfortable about growing here. When businesses are looking forward, they want stability and predictability.”
Bearing Race Puller Rich Products’ site is across Myrtle Street from the old Stanley Works hardware factory complex, which has largely been demolished as the city waits for redevelopment by EIP LLC, a company that has been promising a $1 billion fuel cell and data center project.