Emmi Roth moves into Dundee Foods

DUNDEE--Emmi Roth has leased a portion of the Dundee Foods building located at 74 Seneca St. in Dundee and is currently using it for warehouse purposes. Plant Engineering Manager with Emmi Roth Joe Dombroski spoke to the Dundee village board about the move during their regular meeting Tuesday, Dec. 9, saying they have been in the building since Monday, Dec. 1. He said while there are no plans to use the facility for production yet, they are expecting to use the location for warehouse purposes going forward.
"We have been trying to lease the warehouse in Dundee, the old Seneca Foods plant, for warehousing," Dombroski said. "[...] We have finally come to agreements and we have been in there since Dec. 1."
Dombroski said the company already has three people at the plant working full-time. Adding he learned in the past week his company is being purchased by Kansas-based aseptic beverage and dessert packaging company KanPak.
"Last Friday, [Dec. 5,] it was brought to our attention we were bought," Dombroski said. "Emmi Switzerland -- we are a Switzerland-owned company -- decided to sell our company to a company down in Kansas called KanPak. This company was the second aseptic company in the country. [...] They have been around for a long time, so now we are owned by a U.S. company."
Dombroski said the closing will be Thursday, Dec. 18, when they officially become KanPak. Dombroski said KanPak "loved the warehouse," adding he has already put in a quote to start leasing the cooler in the facility, which he estimated would probably happen in January. He said KanPak has a distribution center near Buffalo which accepts their product shipped from Kansas, adding "they are the only supplier for all the iced coffee for Tim Hortons." Dombroski said they will start making the product, putting in two lines in Penn Yan to expand.
"In that same token, we will be closing the distribution center within the first five or six months in Buffalo and we will be relocating that down here at the Dundee warehouse," Dombroski said. "So it is going to get a lot bigger up here. A lot more trucks in and out, a lot more people, I would say we should have eight to 10 people in a few months up here working."
Dombroski said he currently does not know certain details like how much square footage they are going to take or how many trucks will be going in and out of the facility, but added they are currently running "five trips back and forth, plus three or four other trucks a day in and out of there. He said after the lease is up there is a possibility KanPak may decide to purchase the building.
"Hopefully we are here to stay," Dombroski said. "With any luck KanPak will buy the building. We know what Aziz [Debbagh, president and CEO of Aceyt] paid for it. He is willing to move it. We have a year lease with him. He can't sell it for that year that we are in there. [...] We have first option to buy it after the year."
Dombroski said the Dundee building will be used as a warehouse, with the production expanding at their Penn Yan location, adding there will be meetings next week to "harden up all of our plans moving forward for the first six months."