Dive Brief:
- Enjoy Life Foods is moving production from its Schiller Park, IL, plant to a 200,000-square foot facility in Jeffersonville, IN, where the free-from snacks company will be able to expand production.
- Employees at the Schiller Park location will be offered jobs about 300 miles away at the Jeffersonville facility. Enjoy Life expects the plant to bring 100 to 150 jobs to the area, with the potential for more as the company carries out its plans for growth.
- The shift to the new facility is expected to happen in the second quarter of this year, and the closure of the previous plant is anticipated for the third quarter.
Dive Insight:
Enjoy Life specializes in creating products that are gluten-free and free from the eight most common allergens. The free-from foods industry, a $12 billion market, continues to expand and is predicted to post double-digit growth as demand for these types of products increases, Courier-Journal reported.
Enjoy Life is riding the success of the free-from foods movement, especially since being acquired by Mondelez last year. This new facility will enable the company to install more efficient equipment to meet global demand, and its location farther south will make it faster to source product from suppliers and distribute to retailers in southern and western markets, Joel Warady, Enjoy Life's chief sales and marketing officer, told Crain's.
In 2014, Enjoy Life's last year as an independently-owned company, the free-from foods producer posted sales of $40 million.