D.F. Stauffer Biscuit Co. plans to expand its Orange County operations more than fivefold to 300 workers with a move to a new 217,000-square-foot bakery complex at The Gateway Center in Santa Ana next year.
The York, Penn.-based maker of cookies and crackers has signed a 15-year lease in Santa Ana valued at $21.5 million, according to CoStar Group Inc. The company plans to move from its current 55,000-square-foot facility in Tustin next spring when the new building is completed.
“They’re pouring the concrete,” said John Caha, Stauffer’s director of marketing.
Stauffer currently has 55 employees in Tustin, Caha said. Eventually, the new facility could employ 300 to 400 people, he said.
“They’re going to add 250 jobs,” said Michael Hartel, a broker with Colliers Seeley in Irvine who represented Stauffer in the Santa Ana lease.
Access to workers and the building’s size were key factors in the move, Hartel said.
“The commute time and expense is better for the employees they need,” he said. “And the building specialization was such that it would be easier to do it from scratch.”
The site also falls in a designated state enterprise zone and a federal empowerment zone, which offer tax breaks and other assistance to companies expanding in them.
“Every piece of stationary equipment they buy is worth something on their taxes,” Hartel said. “And (the city) busted its tail to get these guys a low-cost loan for equipment acquisition: $12 million at 5%.”
The loan is being funded from $130 million Santa Ana has allocated for economic development. The city raised the money through tax-exempt industrial revenue bonds.
Patti Nunn, Santa Ana’s economic development manager, said Stauffer stands to benefit from state tax credits.
“There are two forms (Stauffer) can access. One is for hiring,about $26,000 per qualified employee over five years,” she said. “The other is a sales and use tax credit on any qualified machinery.”
Qualified machinery, she said, is “value-added” equipment,anything that a company uses to make one item more valuable, such as gear for turning flour into cookies.
“These guys could have ended up in Ontario or anywhere,” Hartel said. “The whole concept was to have a West Coast facility equal to their East Coast facility. They’re going to be in there a long time.”
Stauffer entered Orange County after buying Tustin-based Laguna Cookie Co. in May of last year. The company’s estimated sales last year were $70 million.
Stauffer is known for what it calls the “Original Animal Crackers” sold in stores such as those of Costco Wholesale Corp. In 1987, the family descendants of the founder sold a majority interest in the 130-year-old company to Japanese food and pharmaceutical company Meiji-Seika Kaisha Ltd. of Tokyo,
“They’re like the Nestle’s of Japan,” Hartel said. n
