SCHUMER MEETS WITH AMY’S KITCHEN FOUNDERS TO DISCUSS WAYS TO CREATE NEW JOBS IN ORANGE COUNTY; SENATOR VOWS TO HELP COMPANY GROW JOBS & PROSPER IN NEW YORK
In 2014, Amy’s Kitchen Announced Plans To Build A New Facility In Goshen, NY – Facility is Expected to Create 600-1,000 Local Jobs In Orange County
Schumer: Amy’s Kitchen and Hudson Valley’s World Class Workforce are the Perfect Ingredients Needed to Cook Up Jobs For Orange County
U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer recently met with Andy and Rachel Berliner, co-founders and owners of Amy’s Kitchen, to discuss ways to help the company create jobs and prosper in the Hudson Valley. Amy’s Kitchen is a California-based, family-owned organic and natural food distribution company that sells its products to many large national retail chains, including ShopRite, Price Chopper and Wal-Mart. In 2014, the company announced it would be building a $95 million, 350,000-500,000 sq. foot development in Goshen, NY. The facility is estimated to employ 600 local residents, with the potential to employ upwards of 1,000 people, in Orange County. During their meeting, Schumer vowed to fight tooth and nail to help the company grow jobs and succeed in New York.
“I think the combination of Amy’s Kitchen and Hudson Valley’s world-class workforce and fantastic farms are the perfect ingredients needed to cook up jobs for Orange County residents. And I am committed to help Amy’s Kitchen break through the kind of bureaucratic red tape that could prevent the creation of these new local jobs,” said Schumer. “Creating jobs in the Hudson Valley is a top priority of mine, and Amy’s Kitchen – an organic and often locally-sourced food company – is just the type of operation that is a perfect match for the Hudson Valley and the whole New York metro region.”
Schumer said further that, “There is a strong potential for Amy’s to have a large economic impact on local Hudson Valley farms and the regional agricultural industry.” This, he explained, is because Amy’s has historically relied on local communities and small businesses to provide ingredients for their distribution centers and product lines. Schumer explained that two-thirds of the ingredients used in Amy’s Kitchen products currently come from California and Oregon – because that is where Amy’s is currently located. Schumer said the development of this new facility in Goshen could mean increased opportunities for Orange County businesses and farms to provide ingredients for Amy’s products, as most of its sales are in the Eastern half of the U.S. Its product lines include frozen entrees, burritos, soups, cookies and candy.
Schumer said he would work on the federal level to ensure Amy’s can grow and prosper in Orange County and will also work with his partners at other levels of government. New York State provided $6.8 million in incentives to the company. According to the Times Herald Record, the Amy’s Kitchen facility is expected to occupy 200 acres between 100 Echo Lake Road and Route 17M and generate a payroll of $18 million and gross receipts of $150 million once the distribution center is up and running.
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