Dive Brief:
- Food processor Mart Frozen Foods opened a $65 million facility in Rupert, Idaho, on Wednesday, according to a press release.
- The 100,000-square-foot plant created 80 jobs and will produce and package OH!Tatoes, a frozen, fully-baked Idaho potatoes brand, according to the company’s website.
- The facility is the company’s second frozen potato processing plant, parent company The Mart Group President and CEO Julian Critchfield said in an email to Manufacturing Dive. The company previously produced the baked potatoes at a smaller facility as part of its World Foods acquisition four years ago.
Dive Insight:
Up until this year, The Mart Group’s frozen baked potatoes were only available to commercial kitchens and restaurants in Japan and other Asian countries, the company said.
That was because World Foods — which created the initial version of the company’s frozen baked potato — had commercial kitchen distribution channels set up in Asia, Critchfield said. The existing production facility the company acquired, which is located 15 miles from the new plant in Burley, Idaho, allowed The Mart Group to start some small-scale production and distribution of the product.
“As retailer interest quickly grew, the new, 100,000 square foot facility became necessary to meet customer demand,” Critchfield said.
The company established OH!Tatoes this year for the purpose of making frozen baked potatoes available to consumers in North America, the company said in an email. Since the acquisition, the company worked on advancing the product as well as developing the brand, strategic plan and distribution channels to launch OH!Tatoes in North American grocery stores, including Publix, Harris Teeter and Associated Foods, Critchfield added.
In June 2023, the Department of Agriculture awarded The Mart Group a $19.6 million loan under the agency’s Food Supply Chain Guaranteed Loan program that was used to build the newly opened frozen potato processing plant. The program supports investments in infrastructure to strengthen the domestic food supply chain, according to a June 2023 press release.
With the frozen potato processing facility now opened, The Mart Group can begin offering OH!Tatoes to food service providers, retailers, wholesalers and industrial food manufacturers across the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
The potato processing plant is located near The Mart Group’s headquarters in Rupert, expanding the company’s footprint in the Idaho town and employing over 230 people, according to the release. The company has a fresh pack facility located next to the new potato processing plant and processing solutions site in Heyburn, Idaho.
The new Rupert plant is also located in the Southern Idaho region dubbed “Magic Valley,” home to manufacturers such as Chobani, Clif Bar, DuPont de Nemours and Bayer, according to the Southern Idaho website.
The eight-county region also has a strong agricultural base including potatoes, wheat, oats and pork processing, which contributes nearly half of the state’s approximately $11.3 billion in yearly agricultural receipts, according to The Mart Group’s press release.
