Pinnacle Foods to Open Wish-Bone Operations at St. Elmo Plant

Pinnacle Foods will open manufacturing for its recently-acquired Wish-Bone salad dressings business in St. Elmo. A ribbon-cutting ceremony will take place on April 8 at 1:30pm, marking the opening of this new venture and the creation of many new jobs for the area.

This marks an expansion of Pinnacle's existing St. Elmo plant to include Wish-Bone production. The plant currently employs about 85 people and is planning to add approximately 90 more to its roster in the first half of 2015, as the company prepares to bring Wish-Bone production in-house. Over the course of the project, the company has invested over $50 million to purchase new equipment, expand the plant footprint and improve existing plant infrastructure.

Pinnacle completed the acquisition of the Wish-Bone and Western salad dressings business from Unilever in October 2013 and previously announced plans to consolidate production of the products into an existing Pinnacle facility. St. Elmo was identified as the best location for the integration, given its geographic location and what the company termed the plant's "proven expertise in liquid filling and processing". The St. Elmo plant currently manufactures Pinnacle's Mrs. Butterworth's and Log Cabin syrups, and Open Pit barbecue sauces.

Pinnacle Foods has received support in the form of grants from the state of Illinois and assistance from the City of St. Elmo and Fayette County to bring investment and job opportunities to the St. Elmo area.