Sabra Dipping Co., a New York-based food manufacturer that is putting the finishing touches on a new factory in Chesterfield County, also has been planning to make the Richmond area its corporate headquarters.
In an interview and at a presentation to a local business networking group this week, a Sabra executive said the firm considers the Richmond region the right place for production and management as its business grows.
"We see Virginia and the Richmond area as the main base for our North American expansion," said Meiky Tollman, Sabra's executive vice president and general manager.
Sabra has essentially completed work on a 110,000-square-foot factory in the Ruffin Mill Industrial Park in Chesterfield. Next month, it will start making kosher and vegetarian foods such as hummus.
Tollman said no final decision has been made on the headquarters location.
But a Sabra spokeswoman confirmed that the company has been planning to move out of its Astoria, N.Y., headquarters and close its production plant there. It has offered relocation packages to employees including top management.
The number of jobs a headquarters move would create locally is uncertain.
The company has about 190 employees in Astoria, including 38 working at its headquarters and more than 150 employees in production, maintenance and logistics.
Sabra has said it expects to employ about 260 people at its Chesterfield factory.
Sabra is a joint venture between Strauss Group, Israel's second-largest food company, and snack maker Frito-Lay, which is owned by Purchase, N.Y.-based beverage company PepsiCo.
At the Chesterfield plant, test batches of hummus already have been made, though full production won't ramp up until next month.
Crews worked on equipment this week, and some employees were being trained. Tollman said the site will start operation with about 180 employees.
The plant has a spacious cafeteria, a kitchen where Sabra customers can taste food products, and a walking and running trail for employees.
"We invested a lot in the site. We don't want it to be just another plant," Tollman said in a presentation Thursday at a meeting of The Enterprise Circle, a business-networking group of the Jewish Community Federation of Richmond.
For example, the company has invested $2.2 million on green initiatives at the plant, such as using alternative energy sources, Tollman said.
He said the company chose the Richmond area for the new plant in part because of its central location along the East Coast and its access to major highways. The company also decided that the local labor force and business climate were the best among several states it considered.
Sabra was founded in 1986, initially to sell kosher foods to Jewish communities in the Northeast. But the company has seen significant national sales growth in recent years.
The company also makes Mediterranean salsas, but "the hero of the story" for Sabra is hummus, Tollman said. A popular Middle Eastern dip made with cooked chickpeas, hummus is enjoying growing popularity in North America, he said.
The percentage of American households that buy hummus rose from about 4 percent in 2003 to 15 percent in 2009, according to statistics Tollman presented Thursday.
Sabra has gained about a 40 percent market share in the category, from less than 3 percent eight years ago, putting it ahead of all its U.S. competitors in market share. That has helped propel the company's sales to about $120 million in 2009 from about $8 million in 2003.
There is still much room for growth, Tollman said.
While hummus has gained new fans, its sales are still dwarfed by other spreads and dips such as peanut butter, which more than 75 percent of American households buy.
To appeal to the tastes of American consumers, Sabra redesigned its food packaging and has introduced new flavors, some of which were served for breakfast at Thursday's Enterprise Circle meeting.
There were roasted red pepper hummus, spinach and artichoke hummus, caramelized onion hummus, and even vegetarian liver hummus.
Contact John Reid Blackwell at (804) 775-8123 or jblackwell@timesdispatch.com.
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