Almond cooperative Blue Diamond has begun an expansion at its processing facility in Turlock, California.
The new addition is part of Blue Diamond’s continued plans to expand value-added product lines and deliver innovative almond products worldwide.
The 52,000-square-foot building will be the latest construction of the three-phased project that will eventually yield a total of about 500,000 square feet of building space over the next nine years. This phase of the project is scheduled to be completed in spring 2020 and will accommodate growth of the cooperative’s business, adding new automated processing and packaging equipment that will help meet rising demand.
The company held a groundbreaking ceremony at the 200,000-square-foot manufacturing facility yesterday.
Blue Diamond president and CEO Mark Jansen said: “We are pleased to build our partnership with the Turlock community by investing to expand our facilities and workforce. We are creating the healthiest almond products and delivering the benefits of almonds to the world. This project allows Blue Diamond to meet the growing demand for our innovative almond products.”
Blue Diamond chairman Dan Cummings added: “We are thankful to our growers who own this cooperative for entrusting their almonds to us so we can continue to make valuable investments. This project gives them a secure future in the almond business.”
Blue Diamond first announced its plans to build a manufacturing plant in the City of Turlock in April 2012, creating more than 100 jobs.
Amy Bublak, the mayor of Turlock – a town 60 miles east of San Jose – claimed that the community was “tremendously excited” about the expansion of the Blue Diamond plant. “We know Blue Diamond has other company locations where they could have placed this expansion, but we are proud they chose Turlock. We look forward to the additional jobs this expansion will bring.”
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