By JEREMY HUNT
Daily News-Record
MOUNT CRAWFORD — WhiteWave Foods Co. plans to invest nearly $70 million in its Mount Crawford facility.
Local dignitaries, including Rockingham County government leaders, and company officials joined Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling in announcing the expansion project at a groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday.
It comes just a few months after the Bloomfield, Colo.-based company obtained an $8 million building permit from the county for another project.
Taken together, WhiteWave will add at least 36 jobs paying a wage of more than $20 an hour, said Jim Peacock, the company’s vice president of supply chain.
The $69.8 million project will more than double WhiteWave’s warehouse space and create three new product lines, according to state and company officials.
Peacock said the warehouse accounts for about 40 percent of the cost of the project, which he said complements the one associated with the $8 million building permit.
These most recent expansion projects are just part of White-Wave’s investment in Rockingham County.
Once completed, the company’s investments will total more than $190 million since taking over the Mount Crawford plant in 2002.
WhiteWave, a wholly owned subsidiary of Dean Foods, makes Silk, Horizon Organic, International Delight and Land O Lakes products at the Rockingham County facility.
About 400 people work for the business at the corner of U.S. 11 and Dinkel Avenue.
Gov. Bob McDonnell approved an $800,000 grant to secure the expansion project. Virginia competed against Texas to be chosen for the expansion, according to the governor’s office.
“WhiteWave Foods Company is a vital part of the Rockingham County business community, and this tremendous project ensures continued growth and the potential for additional expansion projects at the facility due to increased capacity,” McDonnell, who is on an economic development mission to Asia, said in a statement released Thursday.
Speaking at the groundbreaking, Bolling took the opportunity to tout economic development efforts by him and McDonnell that he says have yielded nearly 150,000 jobs during the governor’s term in office, which ends at the close of the year.
“Most of the success has not been by bringing in new businesses,” Bolling said. “It’s been by growing existing businesses.”
Bolling also gave credit to Rockingham County officials, local economic development groups and state leaders for their work to encourage growth.
Del. Steve Landes, R-Weyers Cave, who represents Mount Crawford in the House of Delegates, was on hand for Thursday’s ceremony.
“This doesn’t happen unless you have a local government that’s open for business,” the lieutenant governor said.
Also at Thursday’s event, Fred Eberly, chairman of the Board of Supervisors, announced that the board will consider creating a manufacturing technology district that will encompass WhiteWave’s plant.
County Administrator Joe Paxton said such a designation provides economic development incentives for businesses within the district’s boundaries.
The Board of Supervisors will take up the matter when it meets Wednesday at 6 p. m. at East Rockingham High School.
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You can read Governor McDonnell's press release on the WhiteWave expansion here.
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