Honeyville will continue to grow in the Beehive State. The longtime food products company has announced it will expand its manufacturing operations in northern Utah, adding 115 jobs over the next few years.
Honeyville will continue to grow in the Beehive State.
The longtime food products company has announced it will expand its manufacturing operations in northern Utah, adding 115 jobs over the next few years. The company, Honeyville Inc., announced the $23 million project last week after being approved for a tax credit of up to $520,261 by the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) board.
The company was founded in 1951 by Lowell Sherratt Sr., who bought a mill in Parowan to crack grain for a feed company in southern California. The company eventually moved to Honeyville in Box Elder County and took the community name as Honeyville Grain.
Beginning primarily with grain production, Honeyville has since expanded under the direction of Lowell Sherratt Jr., the founder’s son, and now specializes in private label co-packing, mixing/blending, grain milling, heat-treatment, wholesale ingredient distribution and consumer products. Last year, Lowell Sherratt Jr. retired as CEO after more than 40 years in the position. Food industry veteran and son-in-law Ed Hemphill succeeded him.
Honeyville is a privately held, family-owned and operated manufacturer and distributor of more than 3,000 dry food ingredients. Its customers include mid- and major grocers, club stores and health food retailers; cereal and pet food manufacturers; bakery and food manufacturers; plus those focused on e-commerce food and health and emergency preparedness.
The company is based in Brigham City and has a grain mill in Honeyville; retail stores in Brigham City and Salt Lake City; and a warehouse and distribution facility near the Salt Lake City airport that was established in 1981. In addition to Utah, the company has operations in California, Arizona and Ohio.
The company’s mill near Brigham City will continue operating, with the expansion occurring elsewhere in northern Utah. Ogden has offered the company a local incentive.
In briefing the GOED board during its meeting last week, board member Peter Mouskondis described the Sherratts as “an icon family in this community.”
“It’s really important, I think, to offer something and to continue to push for family business legacies to continue to grow in Utah, and this is exciting,” Mouskondis said. While the company plans to grow in other states as well, “it’s nice to see that they are still going to be grounded here,” he added.
The expansion project’s jobs are expected to result in total new wages of $36 million over an eight-year period and new state tax revenues of $2.6 million during that time.
Johnny Ferry, the company’s vice president of customer development, suggested that the project could help attract other companies to the area.
“Honeyville’s customer base includes some of the largest retailers and manufacturers in the world, and those people will be coming and trekking through Utah to come to our facility and see the products we manufacture for them as a private label,” he told the board.
“And they’ll drive down the road and look to their left and their right and they’ll see the resources and they’ll see the people and they’ll see the positive business atmosphere that we have here. And they will say, ‘Well, maybe we should be here in Utah, as well. Maybe Utah is a pretty good state.’ And we’ll turn to them and we’ll say, ‘Utah is a great state.’”
