Peanut butter-filled pretzels may start being made in Plymouth as soon as next week. Pretzels, Inc. is wrapping up construction on its new manufacturing facility in the Marshall County Shell Building.
Chief Operating Officer Paul Schaum says the company plans to start test-running products next week. “We’ve had our associates, some of them, on payroll for four weeks now,” he said Thursday. “And they’re going through training and getting to know each other and starting their own individual culture for a plant.” He says the facility will start with two 12-hour shifts Mondays through Thursdays, with plans to eventually add weekend shifts and then a second production line.
The plant will handle the company’s popular line of peanut butter-filled pretzels. Schaum explained how the manufacturing process will work, during a tour for city officials and members of the media Thursday. “If you think of it like the dough is being extruded like a garden hose, and then inside that garden hose, we’re also injecting peanut-butter at the same time,” he explained. “So when we do that, we then have this ribbon of dough, and in this case 60 of them, moving up the line to be cut for length and shape, before it goes through a cooker and then salted and then into the oven.”
He says the whole process takes about an hour and 15 minutes from start to finish. After that, 70 percent of the product will go to the company’s warehouse in Bluffton, while the rest will be shipped to customers in full truckloads.
Plymouth Council Member Don Ecker Jr. said he was impressed with the facility’s progress. “Walking through it when it was a dirt floor and no lighting, to going in there today to see the lighting, the walls put up, the multi-million-dollar piece of equipment and what it takes to make a pretzel is awful impressive,” he said. “And to know that they’re going to have 35 jobs, well-paying jobs that will be fully benefited, can only benefit the community long-term. So I’m excited.”
Marshall County Economic Development Corporation President and CEO Jerry Chavez says Pretzels, Inc. is a good fit for the city of Plymouth. On top of that, he says the company’s move to Plymouth is proof that the shell building concept works. “A shell building is very valuable in your economic development strategies, especially in Indiana,” he says. “Most companies are looking, like Pretzels – they want to get in the ground fairly quickly. They want to get into production fairly quickly. And having a building up and available for them allows you to meet their – quite often, a fast track to production.”
In the case of Pretzels, Inc., a fire at the company’s former Canonsburg, Pennsylvania plant last June forced them to find a new location quickly. More shell buildings are planned for various locations around Marshall County.
