All Garlic, No Pork

From the Des Moines Register:

Michigan-based Cole’s Quality Foods will celebrate the opening of its North Liberty frozen garlic bread plant at 11 a.m. Wednesday with a site tour and comments from company and community leaders.

Last year, the food manufacturing company announced it would invest $15 million to upgrade the existing commercial baking facility at 1420 Progress St. The 35,465-square-foot plant, now operational, will employ 60 workers once hiring is complete.

And this is from the Cedar Rapids Gazette last June, via NicholasJohnson.org:

No tax abatement will be provided by the state or North Liberty.

Seckman said Cole’s employees will be trained at Kirkwood Community College under the Iowa Industrial New Jobs Training Program. The city of North Liberty will provide some funding for site upgrades.

Rudi’s Organic Bakery of Boulder, Colo., closed its North Liberty bakery in early 2002 after less than a year of operation. Another company, Dare Devil Shells of Phoenix, Ariz., announced plans to take over the Rudi’s facility but never began production.

Iowa taxpayers have already spent $13 million on the facility. The original money came from the Iowa Agricultural Finance Corporation, which was essentially the Iowa Legislature authorizing state government employees to use taxpayer money as venture capital.

Venture capital? More like kindling:

• Rudi's Organic Bakery. $13 million. Failed and moved to Colorado.
  
  
• Wildwood Harvest. $7.1 million. The company has never generated a profit.
  
  
• ProdiGene. $6 million. No employees in Iowa. "Struggled" and was fined by the USDA.
  
  
• Sioux-Preme Packing Company. $5 million. Profitable.
  
  
• Iowa Quality Beef. $3 million. Shut down in 2004 and 540 employees laid off.
  
  
• Ag Waste Recovery Systems. $150,000. No sales, no employees, and is considered an "idle corporation".

Good luck to Cole's Quality Foods. I hope they can find some success in that location. They make garlic breadsticks for Sam's Club, you know, so if you're a Democrat you have to be hoping they'll fail for just being associated with that evil Wal-Mart. They also sell their products to Hy-Vee (the #4 state-wide employer of Medicaid recipients) and Fareway (not open on Sundays).