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Food/Agribusiness

SPONSORED BY DAN VOS CONSTRUCTION

Foodservice distribution giant Gordon Food Service Inc. has expanded to the Lone Star State with the addition of six new retail locations.

KALAMAZOO — Flavor manufacturer FlavorSum LLC plans to begin construction on an expansion project that will double the size of its West Michigan location. 

GRAND RAPIDS — When the Great Recession roiled Michigan in 2008, Takidia Jenkins-Smith started a garden at her home in southeast Grand Rapids to stretch her grocery budget. She was 24 years old at the time with three young sons to feed, so she kept at it, eventually growing food for friends and extended family.


Michigan advocates for migrant workers welcome a new federal task force to address child labor violations, but say more policy change is needed to address systemic problems with the migrant labor system across industries, including food and agriculture.

Michigan farmers and agriculture experts say the state is poised to play a key role in the upcoming national Farm Bill, influencing both the political process as well as provisions involving climate change and insurance programs.

GRAND RAPIDS — Franchise restaurant operator Meritage Hospitality Group Inc. leveraged new store openings and price increases to deliver record sales for 2022. 



Astatewide training program has launched its second cohort to build on efforts of bolstering Michigan’s pipeline of agribusiness leaders.

GRAND RAPIDS — Ferris Coffee & Nut Co., a family-owned and Grand Rapids-based coffee and nut roasting business, has completed a succession plan that passes leadership to the next generation.

A new venture from West Michigan serial entrepreneur Garrick Pohl has been selected to join a Chicago-based accelerator program launched by Wyoming-based Gordon Food Service and its innovation and investment arm Relish Works. 


A Battle Creek food and beverage consulting firm has acquired a research and development team in Brooklyn that it hopes will expand its East Coast foothold and bring new ideas to Michigan.

GRAND RAPIDS — Michigan Turkey Producers Co-Op Inc. has received $1.5 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to bolster its meat processing capacity.

BYRON CENTER — Food distribution and retail company SpartanNash Co. is expanding its distribution capacity with the acquisition of an independent grocery wholesaler in the Upper Peninsula. 



HOLLAND —  Veteran food exec Tina Floyd will join family-owned Hudsonville Creamery and Ice Cream Company LLC on Feb. 13 as its next CEO, taking over for co-owner Denny Ellens.

PLAINFIELD TWP. — Eastern Kille Distillery will kick off the new year with a groundbreaking ceremony for its new headquarters, distillery operations, bar and restaurant in Plainfield Charter Township.

Consumers and producers alike have felt the strain as inflation has driven the cost of food higher, and they’re bracing for more of the same in the year ahead. 


GRAND RAPIDS — Franchise restaurant operator Meritage Hospitality Group Inc. is expanding its portfolio of Wendy’s restaurants with a deal to acquire a group of restaurants in the Midwest. 

GRAND RAPIDS — The mixologists behind a non-alcoholic beverage shop in Grand Rapids’ Downtown Market recently opened a retail storefront with a wide selection of zero-proof cocktail mixers, spirits, beer and wines.

As food prices surge to record highs, a pair of West Michigan food banks — Comstock Park-based Feeding America West Michigan and Ottawa Food in Holland Charter Township — have secured public funding to expand their services and meet growing demands. 


GRAND RAPIDS — Alpine Township-based Perrin Brewing Co. plans to open a new beer garden at Van Andel Arena under the terms of a sponsorship deal with the Grand Rapids Gold G-League basketball team. 

BYRON CENTER — A new partnership with Uber Technologies Inc. will allow customers of SpartanNash Co. stores to have their groceries delivered on demand.

SHELBY — Perdue Farms, a Salisbury, Md.-based food and agricultural firm, will invest more than $27 million to renovate a former food processing facility in Oceana County. 


As Michigan Agritourism Month draws to a close, a group of Northern Michigan wineries are left to wonder why the statewide recognition of the industry’s economic and social benefits continues to escape local policymakers. 

Astate board late last month advanced a key step in financing a proposed Osceola County potash mining facility that could lower fertilizer costs for farmers while delivering significant local economic benefits, according to agriculture experts. 

A wastewater pipeline expansion project that local leaders and company executives say is crucial for agribusiness expansion in Ottawa and Muskegon counties has received $60 million in state funding.


The Michigan Strategic Fund has taken an initial step in approving a $225 million bond for a company pursuing a large-scale potash mining operation in Osceola County.

The Michigan Craft Beverage Council has opened applications for a new qualified distillers program, as well as for its annual research grant funding. 

GRAND RAPIDS — Sip Shine LLC, a marketer of moonshine and canned cocktails, plans to open its first tasting room and restaurant in the Harmony Hall building on Grand Rapids’ west side.


The substantial craft brewing industry in Grand Rapids seemingly has something to offer for every beer drinker. Yet despite ranking 13th in the nation for breweries per capita, the local industry has one glaring omission: gender representation. 

GRAND RAPIDS — Harmony Hall will be closing its doors on Grand Rapids’ west side as the owners of Harmony Brewing Co. LLC plan to move brewing production to another location to “maximize” distribution.

KENTWOOD — A European manufacturer of natural snack food products will invest nearly $42 million to establish a U.S. headquarters in Kentwood and create up to 185 jobs in the process, state officials announced today.


A group of mostly West Michigan investors, led by former Founders Brewing Co. Chairman John Green, has acquired Natterjack Irish Whiskey maker Gortinore Distillers & Co. after partnering with the company’s founder to avoid liquidation, MiBiz has learned. 

KALAMAZOO — Private equity-backed FlavorSum LLC, formerly known as National Flavors, has bolstered its platform with the addition of a fifth flavor manufacturer. 

KALAMAZOO — Bell’s Brewery Inc. has launched a new charitable initiative that expects to distribute $480,000 in donations in its first year and support social and environmental causes in communities where its products are distributed.


A Mead Johnson & Co. LLC production facility in Zeeland is set to receive more than 300,000 pounds of infant base formula to blend, package and redistribute in the coming weeks as federal officials seek to ease an ongoing supply shortage.

As a sober resident in a city widely recognized for its craft beer scene, Paul Clark struggled to find non-alcoholic options outside of soda, coffee or sparkling water. 

ZEELAND — A West Michigan formula producer will import roughly 331,000 pounds of infant formula base powder this month from a facility in Mexico to be blended, packaged and redistributed.


CADILLAC — Long Road Distillers LLC is shutting down its Cadillac tasting room after a year in business because of staffing challenges.

While restaurant owners have warned of impending industry collapse — or at least uncertain operating conditions — of swiftly strengthening the state’s minimum wage and paid sick leave requirements, their workers have welcomed recent developments that they say ensure economic stability.

Michigan employers will have at least six months to prepare for an increase to the state’s minimum wage and stronger paid sick leave requirements following a Friday court ruling that brought swift applause from restaurant owners.


GRAND RAPIDS — Roskam Baking Co., the quietly massive operation that helped put West Michigan on the map as a center for food manufacturing, has sold to new private equity owners after nearly a century as a family owned business. 

86 Repairs Inc., a restaurant equipment repair and maintenance company founded in Grand Rapids, has raised $15.2 million from investors to support the company’s ongoing growth.

State officials are preparing to distribute federal block grant funding for Michigan seafood processors that significantly shifted from a wholesale to a retail focus during the COVID-19 pandemic.


WYOMING — Food service distributor Gordon Food Service Inc. is among the returning investors in a Chicago-based venture capital fund that invests in the food and retail industries. 

GRAND RAPIDS — Restaurant operator Meritage Hospitality Group Inc. is expanding its holdings in Florida with a deal to acquire six Wendy’s locations in Jacksonville. 

Already pinched by an ongoing dearth of available workers, restaurants are also facing significant increases in their expenses tied to equipment maintenance and repairs.


Small distilleries and grain farmers in Michigan are poised to benefit from a new state law that incentivizes the use of Michigan-grown grains when producing liquor.

BATTLE CREEK — Kellogg Co. has unveiled plans to split into three independent companies and base the corporate headquarters for the largest of the three in Chicago.

WYOMING — As a food distributor serving a large swath of the country, Gordon Food Service Inc. is closely involved with the pain points facing restaurants and food service operations.