By J. Eric Eckard

Monday was a sweet day for Nash County, said Tom Betts, chairman of the Carolinas Gateway Partnership.
City, county and state officials announced Monday that Poppies International, a frozen pastry maker from Belgium, would locate a plant and its North American headquarters in Rocky Mount.
The 90000 square-foot, *10 million facility is expected to initially employ 50 workers and open April 2 , 2001.

We are committed to attracting job, jobs and more jobs”, said Betts. “But there are jobs, and then there are jobs. It’s especially sweet today to be able to announce that there wille be quality jobs with the opening of Poppies International.”
Construction of the new plant in the Whitaker Business and Industry Center in Gold Rock is slated to begin in August, company,officials said during the Monday morning news conference at the Carolinas Gateway Partnership offices.

Poppies makes frozen pastries and sells them to food distributors and wholesale stores such as Sam’s Club.  The family-run firm started in 1976 in Belgium and began exporting pastries to the United States and Canada about four years ago.
The company employs 200 people in Belgium and has annual sales of about $50 million.  Poppies exports to 70 countries. 
With the expansion to North Carolina, Poppies officials said the company might extend sales to nationwide grocery chains.

“This is a big adventure for us to come from Europe to America,” said Frans Castelein, Poppies general director and one of the founders of the company.   See Poppies, 2A

POPPIES
Pastry company plans to open Rocky Mount facility in 2001
From Page 1A

“We already feel like North Carolina is a second home.  We want to be considered a local company.”
Poppies officials cited climate, location, hospitality and the fact that North Carolina is a right-to-work state as reasons for locating its new plant in Rocky Mount.
“With access to I-95, we believe we are sitting right between our suppliers and our customers,” said Luc Kerkhof, Poppies vice president.

Poppies officials visited several other states, such as Gorgia, Wisconsin, Kentucky and Missouri before making their final decision.  In fact, after Poppies representatives’ first visit to Rocky Mount, locating in Gold Rock was not an option because the state lacked an eggbreaking plant, a necessity for production at Poppies.

“This was surprising, because North Carolina is such a large egg-producing state,” said Kerkhof.
Poppies and local and state business recruiters have been in contact with egg producers about opening a new eggbreaking plant in North Carolina.

“We toured around for a couple of months, and we kept coming back here and decided this was the place to be,” Kerkhof said. “We hope to find a synergy here in the food industry that we couldn’t find anywhere else – especially with the support industries.

“We have a specialty niche-the frozen pastry- so we’re not competing with Sara Lee or Merita.”
Long term plans for Poppies include possible expansion, which could mean jobs for a total of 160 people over the next few years.

“Many years ago, we had a vision of creating an industrial center for Nash County that would attract quality companies from around the glove,” said Claude Mayo, chairman of the Nash County Commissioners. “Poppies’ announcement here (Monday) validates that vision and the decision to create the center just off I-95.  We are very proud to have Poppies headquarters and manufacturing facility in the center.  We heartily welcome Poppies, and thank them for choosing Nash County as their new home.”