New food company is ready for business

    DUNDEE—You won’t see the name Aceyt Foods added to the front of the Dundee building in the near future, but that doesn’t mean the new company isn’t already working to obtain new business for the Mediterranean-style food venture in Dundee.
    Kirk McAfee, chief executive officer of the Ascent Principal Group based in New York City said, “We had some of the largest olive grove growers from Morocco in Dundee just last Wednesday (Jan. 18)  so they could tour our new facility, they met with the mayor and also had a chance to have lunch at one of our local wineries.We wanted to let these growers know that we now have some new capacity for future olive oil processing.
    McAfee said the new business will be operating the plant in Dundee during the next six months under a lease with the former owner, LiDestri Foods.
    The company will also be moving some of the equipment from its Waterbury, Conn. plant to Dundee over the next few months. McAfee’s partner with this new venture is Aziz Debbagh.
    Debbagh owns similar food processing plants in both Conneticut and Florida.
    McAfee added, “By the end of year one we expect to have some 20 people employed at the plant. By the end of three years I would expect some 40 people to be hired. We inititally need people to take care of the facility, then staffers to help with olive oil processing, supervisors and other manual work as needed.”
    And for the company name, McAfee said they are not sure yet what will be dipslayed on the outside on the building. McAfee added, “We may go with Aceyt Foods or we may work  with a partner and utilize their name too.”