Monterey Gourmet Foods consolidating Seattle area facilities

Monterey Gourmet Foods consolidating Seattle area facilities In an effort to consolidate Seattle area operations, food marketer Monterey Gourmet Foods recently said it has signed a 10-year lease for a 93,000-square-foot building in Kent, Wash., to be used for production, storage, warehousing and office space.
   The new facility, which officials said exceeds the firm's current needs, will replace four existing Seattle area facilities the firm operates, as the different leases expire throughout 2008. The new facility will begin operations on Jan. 1.
   Financial details of the mid-November transaction were not released.
   Based in Salinas, Calif., MGF manufactures refrigerated food products at facilities in Salinas and Seattle, Wash.; and Eugene, Ore. The firm distributes its products to more than 10,000 retail and club stores throughout the United States and parts of Canada, the Caribbean, Latin America and Asia Pacific.
   Eric Eddings, president and chief executive officer of Monterey Gourmet Foods, said: “We have outgrown our current facility in Seattle, Wash. Over the past four years our Seattle facility has incurred compounded annual growth of over 25 percent. The inefficiencies incurred by having four different locations are challenging and costly. All of the current leases expire at different times during 2008 and we believe now is the time to consolidate our operations.”
   Dan Brown, MGF's vice president of operations, said, “We have been searching for a new location for almost a full year. This new site meets the requirements of our people, our manufacturing needs, and our longer term growth plans. We will be transitioning out of our current facilities into this new one in order to avoid any disruption of production.”