New company announces Dundee plans

DUNDEE--After remaining empty since 2012, the Dundee Foods building at 74 Seneca St. has attracted a new multi-national company with new plans. KanPak is a Kansas-based aseptic beverage and dessert packaging company that is purchasing the Emmi Roth plant in Penn Yan. Emmi Penn Yan acquired CASP LLC manufacturing facility in 2010 and produces Siggi's brand yogurt, as well as bag-in-box milk and creamers for foodservice dispensers. Emmi Roth USA is a subsidiary of Switzerland-based Emmi Group and is also a provider of specialty cheeses.
KanPak is a global company with corporate offices in the United States, Mexico and China. According to their website, KanPak has been conducting aseptic packaging of drinks and desserts since 1965, serving customers around the world. Their products include coffee, creamers, fruit beverages, dessert and blended beverages.
KanPak CEO Larry McGill said while it is still "too early to tell," about many details of the purchase, he added the Penn Yan plant will continue to make the products currently being produced at the facility. He said he is excited about entering the community, adding "everybody has been more than welcoming."
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 an agreement and we have been in there since Dec. 1."
Dombroski said the company already has three people at the plant working full-time.
"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 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 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 products shipped from Kansas. He added, "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 [the] first option to buy it after the year."
McGilll said he is "not ready to comment" regarding potentially purchasing the facility.
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."