EVERETT, Wash. - Campbell Soup Company plans to build a new $80 million, 220,000-square-foot culinary campus here for its fast-growing premium refrigerated soup business.

The new facility will enable the company's StockPot business to increase its production capacity by 50 percent when it relocates from its present campus in Woodinville, Wash. The new StockPot facility is expected to start up in the summer of 2006.

Campbell acquired StockPot Inc., which makes restaurant-quality, fresh-refrigerated soups and sauces for the food service industry, in 1998. StockPot's products, which have achieved double-digit growth over the past four years, are sold across the U.S. as part of Campbell's Away From Home division. StockPot is a share leader in the refrigerated soup category in the food service and supermarket channels.

Archie van Beuren, Campbell's president - Away From Home, Canada, Latin America and Mexico Division, said, "Demand for StockPot soups is increasing dramatically through ongoing taste innovations and an absolute dedication to quality. Our new culinary campus will enable StockPot to continue to grow in the food service market, as well as with many leading food retailers who are increasingly recognizing that StockPot's line of high-quality refrigerated soup is a tremendous complement to their prepared foods offerings."

In early April, King County, Wash., officials and StockPot reached an agreement to relocate the company's existing culinary campus to allow for the development of the Brightwater Treatment Plant north of Woodinville in Snohomish County. As part of that agreement, a $23.45 million relocation benefits package was offered by King County, which was intended to assist StockPot to relocate within King, Snohomish, or Pierce counties, and thereby maintain over 400 jobs and $21 million in annual company purchases in the region.

Kathleen Horner, president of StockPot, said, "Everyone associated with StockPot is gratified that we will be relocating to Everett, which is only 15 miles from our current Woodinville campus. While the soups we make at our culinary campus have achieved national presence, the Puget Sound is our home. We all deeply appreciate the help that was provided by so many individuals and agencies that have made it possible for StockPot to relocate in the area."

StockPot's new 18-acre culinary campus will be located within the Panattoni Development Company's Seaway Business Center, which is southwest of downtown Everett. The proposed design and site will also allow for future expansion.

Publication date: 07/25/2005