Michigan potato company obtains $250k expansion loan
Josh Reeves, chief financial officer for Three Rivers-based Walther Farms, said the company has been growing potatoes in the Panhandle around Bridgeport and Alliance, and in eastern Colorado near Ft. Morgan and Wray, since 2011. It is planning to relocate it’s current storage facility from Ft. Morgan to Lisco.
The 41-acre, $7.68 million storage facility between Broadwater in Lisco will be able to store 560,000 hundredweight of potatoes, Reeves said, and once the facility opens it will bring in a staff of 10 salaried employees and 16 full-time positions, with two more salaried positions and 11 full-time employees in 2019 if the company moves through with plans to consolidate it’s Wray operation. The positions range from $35,000 to more than $100,000 annually, plus benefits.
Reeves said the company currently rents all of the land it grows potatoes on, and plans on adding 700 annual acres in 2017, and hopes to add 500 additional acres in 2019.
source: starherald.com
