ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
Last week, Gov. Laura Kelly announced Flora Food Group, which is a global food company out of Amsterdam, purchased the former Kansas Dairy Ingredients (KDI) manufacturing facility in Hugoton, which will equal a capital investment of around $90 million and the creation of approximately 100 new jobs over the next several years.
As Stevens County Economic Development Director Jan Leonard tells it, there was a lot of quick work that needed to be done before the sale was made official.
“We had two weeks before the auction to get everything processed enough for this company to want to buy the plant. We had to work really hard to find extra water rights from farmers, and it was a lot of work that happened very, very quickly,” Leonard said. “When the gentleman with Flora Foods originally got in touch with me, it was through WhatsApp, and I was a little wary at first just because the number was completely unfamiliar to me, so I told him to call me on the phone and explain what he wanted to talk about. He did call and actually talk to me, so that helped me feel a little more confident as far his offer being legitimate and all of that. Flora Food Group did ultimately end up winning the bid, and everyone on the city council and county commission and throughout the rest of the town is really happy and excited to get the plant back up and running. The situation with the plant has been rather a mess because what happened was KDI ended up going bankrupt and then called all the employees and basically just told them 'You're done' and they were now unemployed, which was not fun to deal with. Everyone involved with this worked really, really hard to make it happen, and we're all excited about it.”
Leonard said there is predominantly positive vibe about the project moving forward.
“There's also been the task of getting in touch with the ex-employees and letting them know what was going on, and all of those people have already been hired back, which is great,” Leonard said. “They're not going to start hiring the hourly wage people until after the middle of January, and the plan is to get things at least partially operational by the end of February, which is good, with full operations by November 2025. The employees we've talked to who got hired back are beyond excited, because there were quite a few of them who were driving to Liberal or Dodge City for work, and that's not exactly a short distance, so they're happy to be back working locally.”
Even with all the work completed so far, Leonard said there is more to do.
“I think the next more immediate thing is to keep working on some of the water rights, because I believe there's another well that needs to be drilled, and we're going to help with some of that. On our end though, a main goal is to get the employees back and doing what they're doing,” Leonard said. “Part of the plan is to taking out some of the cheese stuff in the plant KDI was doing and putting in some of their own equipment, but for the most part, the plant is actually ready to go and get up and running. The three main items that will be coming out of the plant will be half-and-half, creamer, and cream cheese. It shouldn't really take too much time to get everything back up and running because there's nothing extra that needs to be built onto the structure outside, and the county and city people are going to support whatever the company needs, but I don't think there will be too much extra work needed to get everything running. It really shouldn't be too long of a turnaround, which is also great. It's a $90 million investment that'll guarantee about 100 jobs, so it'll be great for Hugoton and Southwest Kansas.”
Leonard added there was also some luck involved in the deal.
“After they initially got in touch with me, I did a little research and found out they've got a plant in Johnson County that does Country Crock butter products, and their plan was to actually expand there. We lucked out in that respect because we had the empty plant and aside from a few modifications, it's ready to go,” Leonard said. “And all the product made at this Hugoton plant will be shipped to Kansas City before then being shipped out to the rest of the world, which is amazing. I was very excited to hear from Flora Foods because having that nice of a plant with all that new technology and everything else, I didn't want to see it get scrapped, which was a very real possibility. If Flora Foods hadn't won the bid, the next bidder was a scrapper, I believe, and we didn't want all of that to just be vacant. It definitely threw me for a loop seeing that foreign number for the first time through WhatsApp, but I'm really glad I ended up taking their call because it ended up VERY positively. Flora Foods actually has plants in multiple other countries including England and Greece, among many others, so it's unbelievable how big this company is. KDI was a startup company wanting to try something new, but I think what happened was they tried to go too big too fast, and that's what got them. But now, we've got this company coming in that knows what to do and how to do it, and it's huge for Southwest Kansas.”
Overall, Leonard said, he is looking forward to seeing the plant come to life again.
“All of the planning and zoning stuff should be all good to go, because it's already zoned the way it's supposed to be and all of that. There might be a few details that will need to be taken care of on the county's side, but like I said earlier, it's just a matter of walking in and getting everything up and running,” Leonard said. “The auction happened Aug. 25, and I had gotten initial contact only two weeks before that, and everything just snowballed from there at 100 mph. I'm so grateful this company was interested in the plant and helping us out by buying it, and I'm excited we'll be able to give a bunch of employees their jobs back. I'm really excited for this project, and I'm excited to see what impact it will have on Hugoton and the rest of Southwest Kansas.”
