Gerber to expand Fort Smith plant; add 50 jobs

Gerber officials will soon begin work on a $89.9 million expansion of their Fort Smith plant that will create up to 50 new jobs on a new baby cereal line.

The company says the work will be the “most significant expansion and re-design” of the Gerber plant since its 1964 opening. The Gerber Fort Smith production plant is located at 4301 Harriet Ave., and provides employment to more than 650 people.

A cereal line is being added to the 900,000-square-foot plant with construction to begin immediately and be completed by September 2012. The company also said renovations will be made to “support continuous operational improvement and increase production capacity.”

The Fort Smith plant produces a wide range of baby food products, including Gerber 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Foods, Gerber Graduates and Gerber infant cereals.

“This investment is truly a testament to the hard work and commitment of our employees,” Patrick Murray, Gerber’s Fort Smith plant manager said in a statement.

Murray has been working on the project since at least July 2009. In August 2009, the Fort Smith board of directors approved $65 million in industrial revenue bonds for expansion of the Gerber cereal line. (The bonds DO NOT obligate the city in any way, nor do they require city funds.)

“This expansion by Gerber illustrates the continued revival and growth of manufacturing in Fort Smith. It is the continued success of respected companies like Nestlé that will show other prospective businesses the benefits of locating in Sebastian County,” Gov. Mike Beebe said in the statement.

There have been several recent expansions at Gerber’s Fort Smith plant. Gerber, owned by Switzerland-based Nestle, invested up to $65 million in the plant in 2003 to switch from glass to plastic packaging. The company employed about 600 at the time. In 2009 the company invested another $12 million in plant upgrades.

Gerber’s almost $90 million expansion is part of the $300 million of new and expansion projects in the economic development pipeline recently projected by the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce.

And while the new Gerber jobs helping a “continued revival” in Fort Smith area manufacturing may be optimistic, the May unemployment report did show that manufacturing jobs have held steady following a decline that began in early 2006 and leveled off in late 2009. The May report showed 21,500 metro manufacturing jobs, up from the 21,400 from April 2010. The manufacturing sector has trended upward since January when the job count was 21,300.

Unfortunately, May manufacturing jobs were 2.7% fewer than May 2009. Employment in the sector is down 29.9% from a decade ago when January 2001 manufacturing employment in the metro area stood at 30,700.