West Liberty breaks ground

But activities Tuesday for West Liberty Foods LLC's new facility in this Box Elder County community were a hefty bit more than that.

"This is," Mayor Max Weese said, "an answer to prayers."

That's because for a while, Tremonton appeared to lose out to Pleasant View, Weber County, in the race to land the new food processing facility that eventually will employ about 500 people. In May, the private label and co-manufacturer of ready-to-eat sliced processed meat and poultry found out that the preferred Pleasant View site had wetlands issues, causing the company to consider alternatives.

"The mayor had mentioned that you weren't our first choice," West Liberty Chairman Paul Hill told the crowd Tuesday. "But over time, it became evident that you were our best choice."

The company indeed had choices. Hill said Arizona and Nevada had courted West Liberty.

"We've been treated wonderfully. I have nothing but good to say about those states," he said, but he added that the people in Utah displayed "a serious willingness" to work with the company.

"You are people we can communicate with, because when we have concerns and questions, you just plain respond and you give us answers, and you can kind of cut through the chase. ... We asked questions that you responded to immediately. Others couldn't," Hill said.

"We looked at three separate states and it all came back to Utah — Tremonton — showing us why we should come here," said West Liberty's president and chief executive officer, Ed Garrett. "If I just can tell you, everybody that's here from local, state and everybody who supported this project, we got all the help we needed. We know we made the right decision."

Various speakers noted the partnership that developed among the company, the Economic Development Corp. of Utah, local and state economic development officials and others who worked to land the facility in Tre-monton. That all fits into the company's business model of forging partnerships with suppliers, vendors, bankers and communities, according to Garrett. Hill said the company strives for a "win-win-win" situation for all parties.

Already West Liberty has become the marketer for Moroni Turkey Growers for its Norbest brand, and several people found the Tre-monton site — a long-ago turkey farm — an appropriate place for West Liberty.

"West Liberty Foods is just plain, small-town, rural USA, and that's what Tremonton is," Hill said.

Construction already is under way, as huge trucks rumbling past the ceremony site demonstrated. The Tremonton facility will be the company's fourth, and the first outside its home state of Iowa.

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