Ribbon Cutting for Continental Mills Plant in Effingham

(CONTINENTAL MILLS SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS MIKE MEREDITH IS SEEN BEHIND TWO PLANT EMPLOYEES ENCOURAGING THEM AS THEY CUT THE RIBBON OFFICIALLY OPENING THE EFFINGHAM PLANT. ALSO IN THE PHOTO, LEFT TO RIGHT: EFFINGHAM COUNTY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE PRESIDENT NORMA LANSING, EFFINGHAM MAYOR MERV GILLENWATER, EFFINGHAM COUNTY BOARD CHAIRMAN JIM NIEMANN, AND CONTINENTAL OFFICIALS ON HAND FROM CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS IN SEATTLE)

The ribbon was cut Tuesday officially opening a Continental Mills plant in Effingham.

Continental Mills is a Seattle-based food production company. If you've seen Krusteaz brand pancake mix and cake mixes, those are manufactured by Continental Mills.

Continental purchased their Effingham location from Harlan Bakeries, which had been operating in recent years in the plant originally built for Krispy Kreme in Effingham's Business Park. The acquisition was finalized in December 2013 and $2 million in renovations to the plant followed. The cut over to operations under the Continental mantle took place June 29.

There are 15 employees in the Effingham plant; 13 worked there for Harlan Bakeries. Mike Meredith, who serves as Senior Vice-President for Operations for Continental Mills, said "We're here for the long haul."

The Effingham plant manager is Illinois native Mike Churchill. He is relocating from the company's plant in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Hopkinsville is where the contacts were made that led to the decision to open a plant in Effingham.

The Continental plant in Hopkinsville is next door to the milling operation of Siemer Milling Company of Teutopolis. When Continental indicated it was interested in expanding in the Midwest, Siemer Milling President Richard Siemer suggested a look at the Effingham area. That led to meetings with State, County and City officials and work with Agracel, Incorporated to acquire the Harlan Bakeries plant in Effingham.

Meredith said the new Effingham operation is still fulfilling some obligations to Harlan Bakeries, but said they are actively seeking business to be handled locally. He said they don't plan to relocate business from Hopkinsville to Effingham just to beef up the Effingham plant and, in turn, hurt the Hopkinsville operation. He said as new business occurs, we'll see a growth in employment at Effingham.

Meredith said Continental Milling has seen at least a 10% growth in business over the last 13 years and expects that rate of growth to continue in each of the next three years.

Here's a conversation News Director Greg Sapp had following Tuesday's Continental Mills plant ribbon cutting ceremony with Plant Manager Mike Churchill...