The latest tasty morsel to fall into Garlic City is a
Salinas-based pasta company that expects to employ as many as 250
workers come next spring.
The latest tasty morsel to fall into Garlic City is a Salinas-based pasta company that expects to employ as many as 250 workers come next spring.
Monterey Gourmet Foods, Inc., a maker of prepared pasta meals, announced today it will move its Salinas operation to Gilroy. The company has purchased a 120,000 square foot industrial building located at 5755 Rossi Lane in Gilroy to accommodate its growing commercial food operations, said Chief Financial Officer Scott Wheeler.
Though the company expects many of its workers from the Salinas plant, which employs roughly 200 people, to work at the Gilroy plant, Wheeler said the new plant will create construction jobs and a need for additional plant employees.
The company is a subsidiary of Korea based Pulmuone Holdings Co., Ltd., a market leader in the fresh and health foods category with annual sales of approximately $1 billion. Mark Sanchez, senior vice president of Colliers International in Gilroy, confirmed the transaction had taken place and that the company had closed escrow.
The pasta company hopes to have its Gilroy facility up and running by March. In the meantime, the company will invest at least $10 million in equipment and other improvements to the facility, Wheeler said.
As its Salinas plant began running out of capacity, the pasta company started looking in the area for a new facility, Wheeler said. They came across the Rossi Lane property, which met their requirements, and entered into talks with city officials, who were very helpful in facilitating the purchase, Wheeler said.
“It all just started to make sense,” he said.
