City courts Firmenich expansion

By FRITZ BUSCH

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- The scent of sour cream flavoring and whir of heavy machinery cut the air Monday morning as Gov. Tim Pawlenty toured the inner workings of the Firmenich Inc. flavoring plant at 100 N. Valley.

Marlys Lambrecht of New Ulm was Pawlenty's audience outside Firmenich. She and Pawlenty hugged. Her son Bruce is a good friend of the governor.

Pawlenty apologized for being a bit late. The delay was due to the Ukrainian ambassador's visit to his office that was a little longer than he had planned.

Inside the plant, Pawlenty quickly learned from New Ulm Mayor Joel Albrecht and Firmenich Savory Operations General Manager Doug Cook that the firm would like to expand into a $40-$50 million flagship plant. New Ulm is one of two sites being considered for the expansion. Preliminary plans call for a new building in an industrial park west of New Ulm, across U.S. Highway 14 from the airport.

The new plant would generate more than 100 new jobs including engineering, research and corporate management positions.

Albrecht said the City of New Ulm is ready to kick in $300,000 to help support the project. Firmenich and New Ulm officials seek $500,000 in state funds.

"We had things in place until Sept. 11, 2001 hit and the Iraq War happened," Albrecht said. "We want to make New Ulm grow."

Albrecht said a June 4 meeting is planned with New Ulm and Firmenich officials. Pawlenty said he would like to meet with officials again regarding the project prior to the June meeting.

"Let's get this teed up ahead of the June 4 meeting," Pawlenty said. "We'll put pen to paper."

The firm's flagship plant that employs 800-900 in Princeton, N.J. is also being considered for the new project.

Cook said that the Swiss-based plant offers premium wages and benefits. The average full-time production worker wage at the New Ulm plant is $17 per hour, Cook said.

The New Ulm plant produces flavor components in liquid, powder, capsule or paste form for citrus, fruit, dairy/cheese, meat, vegetable, sweet and brown sugar and processed customer product lines.

The plant employs 48. It added a 22,000-square-foot warehouse last December. The expansion doubled its storage capacity and greatly enhanced loading dock capacity. A new spray dryer was completed at the same time.

Annual plant production is 15 million pounds of product, of which 1.7 million pounds and more than 500 orders are exported. An average of 10 trucks with finished product leave the plant each day. An average of seven truckloads of raw materials arrive daily.

The worldwide company based in Geneva, Switzerland, employs 4,560 people in Geneva, North America, the Pacific, Europe and Latin America.

"Good luck on your job," Cook said to Pawlenty as the governor and his entourage left the plant.

"I'll need it," Pawlenty replied. He and the Minnesota Legislature face a budget deficit of more than $4 billion.

Pawlenty toured the August Schell Brewing Co. gift shop before walking through the brewery. He learned that into addition to its own lengthy lineup of beers, the brewery produces Grain Belt Premium, James Page Beer, beer for a brew pub in St. Louis, Mo. and before long, Grain Belt Premium Light.

At maximum capacity, Schell's could produce 150,000 barrels of beer per year. Because it makes a variety of beers, it runs at about two-thirds that level, according to brewmaster Ted Marti.

Schell's, which runs 24 hours and employs 40 full-time workers, hosts more than 25,000 tourists per year.

Marti told Pawlenty that it's tough to compete with two huge beer companies but that there was hope for smaller ones.

"We think that some people will get tired of the two dominant brands and will try ours," Marti said.

Pawlenty said he most often hears about "exploding" health care costs and the need for new jobs from constituents while touring the state. Minnesota lost one-half to three-fourths of the jobs it gained in the '90s in several years just prior to his taking office, Pawlenty said.

"What a wonderful city. We'll put in a pitch for the New Ulm plant expansion and see if the numbers match up," the governor said.