News Provided by Dallas Business journal
July 15, 2020
A manufacturer is making a big investment in southern Dallas.
Eatery Essentials Inc. — a U.S. sister company of Taiwan-based Vigour Pak — will relocate its headquarters and develop a factory in southern Dallas that will create an estimated 150 jobs over the next few years. Eatery Essentials sells paper and plastic foodservice disposables to foodservice companies, food processors, supermarkets and convenience stores.
The company, which today has around a dozen employees, is in the process of relocating its headquarters from Sandy, Utah, to 2425 W. Danieldale Road in Dallas, near the Dallas-DeSoto border. The facility will hold 400,000 square feet of space for corporate functions and manufacturing and warehousing operations.
“We’ve actually closed our offices in Sandy, Utah, and are transitioning our offices, waiting for them to be completed hopefully by the first of August,” said Charles Pickering, vice president of Sales and Marketing for Eatery Essentials.
The company evaluated several different locations across the country before deciding upon Dallas due to the city’s business friendly environment, Pickering said.
The company’s goal is to get the factory up and running in early 2021, but Pickering said that timeline is uncertain because of COVID-19.
Eatery Essentials closed on $19 million in financing as part of New Markets Tax Credits, a tool companies tap when investing in low-income areas. NMTC financing is provided by Los Angeles-based National New Markets Fund, which has invested in eight projects across Texas totaling $135.7 million.
COVID-19 is impacting Eatery Essentials differently depending on the customer. For example, the company supplies airlines and casinos, which have both dramatically reduced spending. At the same time, the company is seeing demand increase for food packaging from customers like grocery stores.
“We’ve had a slowdown in business and overall sales, but it’s not been something that’s been crippling to us,” Pickering said.
Looking down the line a year from now, Pickering added that “everyone is still going to be eating food. And for the most part, food has to be packaged.”
Eatery Essentials is the latest in a string of companies that have, despite the challenges of COVID-19, relocated to North Texas. PlayPower, a large playground equipment manufacturer, and tech company Vio Security are among other businesses that recently decided to move to Dallas-Fort Worth.
