Mart Frozen Foods, a subsidiary of The Mart Group, cut the ribbon on a $65 million high-tech food manufacturing facility in Rupert, Idaho.
Located in Southern Idaho’s “Magic Valley,” the new, 100,000-square-foot plant produces and packages frozen, fully baked Idaho potatoes known as OH!Tatoes.
The new facility is located adjacent to The Mart Group’s headquarters, bringing the company’s total employment in Rupert to more than 230 people. The new Mart Frozen Foods facility will directly create 80 full-time jobs, and have an estimated annual economic impact of $11.15 million.
Home to food giants Chobani, Cliff Bar, McCain Foods and others, Southern Idaho’s eight-county “Magic Valley” region leads the state’s agribusiness industry – contributing nearly half of Idaho’s nearly $11.3 billion in annual agricultural receipts. The Southern Idaho region boasts a strong agricultural base of potatoes, row crops, sugar beets, barley, wheat, oats, seed production, pork processing, dairy production, aquaculture, food science, and lamb, mink and honey production.
In addition to superior natural resources, the region offers food companies the infrastructure to process, package and transport agriculture products. In 2015, Southern Idaho became the nation’s fourth and smallest region to earn the prestigious Federal Manufacturing Community Designation in the Food category.
OH!Tatoes will be the first-of-its-kind whole baked frozen potato available to consumers in North America at stores including Publix, Harris Teeter and Associated Foods.