ICE CREAM PLANT AT SIKESTON PLANS MAJOR EXPANSION

SIKESTON -- Good Humor-Breyers Ice Cream Co., with annual sales approaching $1 billion, will expand its Sikeston operation with a $35 million plant.

Corporate officials in Green Bay, Wis., announced Monday that a building will be constructed on a 40-acre site in the new Sikeston Business and Technology Park approximately five miles from the ice cream plant.

Construction is scheduled to start in April, said Dale B. Grothe, personnel manager of the Sikeston plant. "The quality of the work force in this area was a key factor in the expansion plans here," said Grothe.

The 200,000-square-foot plant will become the flagship of ice cream plants for Unilever Corp., which owns Good Humor-Breyers.

The plant is the first commitment for Sikeston's new industrial park, which became available early in 1996 when the city purchased more than 600 acres along Highway 61 north of Sikeston.

"This is a great commitment to the new park," said Bill Green, director of economic development at Sikeston. "This will enhance the park's chances of attracting additional industry to Sikeston."

More details and plans will be announced during a special conference Wednesday morning at Sikeston City Hall. Green said one of the matters to be discussed Wednesday is a new northern interchange off Interstate 55 at Highway HH, which would lead to the industrial park.

Good Humor-Breyers' plan is the third announcement of a multimillion-dollar industrial project within the past week in the area.

Last week Holigan Family Investments Inc., a land-development and home-building organization headquartered in Dallas, Texas, announced that it is committing to more than $75 million in transactions in Southeast Missouri, including a manufactured-home plant at Sikeston and subdivision purchases in Cape Girardeau, Jackson and Fruitland.

Last weekend Noranda Aluminum announced a $56 million improvement project for its plant at St. Jude Industrial park near New Madrid.

"We're proud of the work we do at Sikeston and are tremendously excited about increasing our capabilities," said Harold Vastag, vice president of engineering and the project leader of the new plant.

The Good Humor-Breyers plant will more than double the size of the company's plant at Sikeston. It will increase from 90,000 square feet and 300 employees to more than 200,000 square feet and 500 employees.

Good Humor-Breyers ranks 22nd in terms of employment among Southeast Missouri industries. The local plant has received the Good Humor-Breyers President's Cup as best plant in the group three of the past four years.

Initially, the plant will employ about 200 new workers, said Grothe. "New workers will be added as the new plant evolves to full production status," he said.

The new Sikeston plant will produced a wide range of ice cream products, including ice cream and frozen novelties, with brands such as Popsicle, Klondike, Good Humor and Breyers. One of the local products is Viennetta, an ice cream dessert that comes in several flavors. Many of the plant's products are on Popsicle sticks. The Sikeston plant in one year used more than 385 million Popsicle sticks.

The existing plant, which has two shifts, employs about 300 people year round. In the summer the labor force grows to more than 350 with the plant operating seven days a week.

The plant has expanded several times since the first ice cream bar rolled off the production line May 15, 1980. It has grown from a single production line to 12 lines.

Gold Bond Ice Cream Co. was the original owner. The company was founded in Wisconsin by Thomas Lutsey, who took over his family's hometown dairy in 1942. He built the company into a nationwide producer of frozen treats.