Spitz plant is on the market

By: Justin Seward
Commentator/Courier
It has been a week since the Spitz plant near Bow Island was listed on the real estate market for a price tag of $2 million, and there has been strong interest in the business community.
Employees at the plant worked their last day on July 12 after PepsiCo announced in February it would be shutting down the Bow Island location and moving operations south of the border.
“There’s definitely quite a bit of interest on it,” said County of Forty Mile Reeve Steve Wikkerink.
“I think it’s good because some of the interest has to do with locally grown ag products. Between our county, Cypress and the MD of Taber, I think any type of process facility in area that is locally grown ag products, that’s positive for anybody.
“I think the other big positive is if a place like that still needs a number of employees and if we can get some people back working there that were maybe already there, that’s the second key point, to get people working again.”
The closure resulted in 50 jobs lost.
If someone goes in there with business smarts and can utilize the existing staff, whom already know the building, is a good asset for any company, he added.
“There are three or four companies that had inquired earlier about it come back into the picture,” said Wikkerink.
Pulse processing companies have been making the “big push,” according to Wikkerink, while there is interest from the cannabis side with hemp production in the area, but he considers that to be a hit and miss.
PepsiCO was unavailable for comment as of press time.

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