Flour mill to set up in PB with 50 jobs

Pine Bluff has landed a new flour mill that is expected to generate 50 jobs when it becomes fully operational next spring.

Western Foods LLC of Woodland, Calif., said it chose Pine Bluff to open a second mill to better serve Midwest and East Coast customers, citing the location’s access to two mainline railroads, several trucking companies and the Port of Pine Bluff on the Arkansas River.

“By opening our second mill in Pine Bluff, we will have an excellent logistical flow to important markets such as Chicago only 10 hours away by truck,” Tom Andringa, the company’s vice president for sales and business, said in a news release Thursday. The company’s other mill is in California.

Western Foods acquired the 56,000-square-foot facility from U.S. Sugar, which closed it in March. The 9-acre property leaves room for expansion, the company said.

The Economic Development Corp. of Jefferson County provided incentives worth $280,750, an amount matched by the state, said Lou Ann Nesbit, who heads the Economic Development Alliance for Jefferson County.