Blount Fine Foods Celebrates Headquarters Production Facility Expansion

Blount Fine Foods, a manufacturer of premium soups, sauces, entrees, side dishes for retail and foodservice, celebrated a "Topping Off" ceremony for its nearly completed 50,000-square-foot addition to its current soup plant in Fall River, Mass. Local officials, customers and employees will signed one of the main I-beams used at the top of the structure during the “Topping Off” ceremony, which was held Aug. 3 at Blount’s headquarters in the Fall River Industrial Park. Fall River, Mass. Mayor Sam Sutter, State Senator Michael Rodrigues, State Representative Carole Fiola, Maria Marasco, Regional Director of the Massachusetts Office of Business Development, and a representative from the Fall River Office of Economic Development, as well as employees, customers and other partners of the company, joined Blount president and CEO Todd Blount at the ceremony. Blount’s current addition is part of a two-phased strategic expansion plan at its headquarters, which the company built and moved into in 2004, and where its continued expansion and evolution have created additional manufacturing employment opportunities within the community. In March, Blount went through the approval and permitting process with both local and state agencies, and broke ground in April. Blount’s plans call for the project to be completed by the end of September 2015. The investment for the first phase is expected to exceed $10 million. There are also plans for a second phase expansion of 40,000 square feet over the next three years. The new facility will house additional packaging innovations and add logistical capacity, including freeing up production space that will allow Blount to expand its product offering beyond its current gourmet soups and side dishes. In addition to the 30 construction jobs the project will create, it is anticipated that the expansion project will create 50 permanent full time jobs and 25 seasonal positions over its first five years. This is in addition to Blount’s employment of 300 fulltime positions at this location, all of which will be retained.