Jonesboro boosters have some industrial news they can really sink their teeth into with the announcement that Frito-Lay Inc. is coming to town.
The snack food giant broke ground March 1 on an $85 million plant and distribution center in the Craighead Technology Park. The facility is expected to employ 700 workers producing and moving Lay’s, Ruffles, Doritos and Tostitos chips as well as other crunchy munchies.
The 400,000-SF facility will mark Frito-Lay’s first manufacturing operation in Arkansas and its 43rd plant overall. In terms of jobs, the project is the third-largest industrial announcement since 1988.
Frito-Lay began looking at more than a dozen cities in Arkansas, Missouri and Tennessee last summer as possible locations for the new plant. Jackson, Tenn., was a leading rival in the site selection process.
“Jonesboro made the third and final cut,” says Robbi Rice Dietrich, Frito-Lay spokeswoman. “This has been an outstanding experience for Frito-Lay in working with the people from Jonesboro, Craighead County and [the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission]. It was a great team effort on the part of the local and state people with private industry.”
The new plant is part of an ongoing capacity expansion program for the company. The program encompasses building new facilities, adding to existing plants and purchasing competitors.
Frito-Lay announced earlier the purchase of four Eagle Snacks plants from St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch Co. Frito Lay, based in Plano, Texas, sold more than $6 billion worth of snack foods in 1995.
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