Shearer’s Foods, an Ohio-based contract manufacturer and private brand supplier for salty snacks, cookies, and crackers, recently announced it will expand its Erie County facility for $27.5 million.
Expansion will include a new product line for its snack food processing operation and a baked line to support increased product demand. It is expected to retain 175 positions and create at least 36 jobs.
The plant, located in Waterford, is one of 11 Shearer’s Foods production facilities in the United States and Canada.
“We are very excited for this high priority and strategic project and the opportunity to significantly expand our Pennsylvania operations,” Fritz Kohmann, Shearer’s chief financial officer, said. “Our Waterford operation has been a great success story, thanks to the strength of our Waterford team members and, in no small part, the support from the State and County.”
The Department of Community and Economic Development submitted a funding proposal for a $135,000 workforce development grant to help the company train workers and $1.75 million in Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program funding.
The Governor’s Action Team coordinated the project.
Shearer’s Foods produces a full line of national brand equivalent cookies, crackers and wafers and organic, gluten free, non-GMO and kosher salty snacks.