Hudsonville Ice Cream $35M expansion receives state and local support

Hudsonville Ice Cream $35M expansion receives state and local support
Hudsonville Ice Cream is building a 156,466-square-foot cold storage distribution center and increasing manufacturing capacity at its campus at 345 E. 48th St. in Holland. <strong>Courtesy Hudsonville Ice Cream</strong>

Hudsonville Ice Cream received support from the city of Holland, the Michigan Strategic Fund, the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and West Michigan Works! for its $35 million expansion that is currently underway.

Holland-based Hudsonville Creamery and Ice Cream Company LLC, dba Hudsonville Ice Cream, is building a 156,466-square-foot cold storage distribution center and increasing manufacturing capacity at its campus at 345 E. 48th St. in Holland, and the economic development organization Lakeshore Advantage said last week that it secured a variety of state and local resources to support its growth.

“We were able to walk alongside Hudsonville Ice Cream on this expansion project, understand their growth milestones and deploy state and local resources to support their expansion project in Holland,” said Jennifer Owens, president of Lakeshore Advantage. “We’ve helped Hudsonville Ice Cream with incremental growth projects over the last few years and commend their commitment to West Michigan.”

This is the fourth expansion project in Holland for Hudsonville Ice Cream in the past three years and its second expansion in 2020. The 45 new jobs it will create will increase the company’s workforce by 47%.

“With this significant and exciting growth, we are focused on maintaining the family-owned culture of the company,” said Kevin Phillips, CFO of Hudsonville Ice Cream. “We value being an employer of choice in this community and the skills and work ethic our team members bring to work each day. We’re pleased to be consumers of Michigan’s dairy commodity that is abundantly available for us to create great products for our customers.”

The company’s $9.8 million expansion earlier this year included dry goods storage. The current $35 million expansion launched this September and is expected to be completed by September 2022.

Local support in the form of a 12-year industrial facilities tax exemption was approved at the city of Holland council meeting Dec. 16.

“Hudsonville Ice Cream has been a model company in our city — expanding their business with quality products, supporting community organizations and events, and being an employer of choice providing great pay and benefits for their people. We are pleased to support this project and this company,” said Keith Van Beek, Holland city manager.

The Michigan Strategic Fund is supporting the project with a three-mill state education tax exemption estimated at $666,000 over 12 years.

The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) is supporting Hudsonville Ice Cream’s expansion with $150,000 from MDARD’s Food & Agriculture Investment Fund, an economic development incentive program focused on the growth of food and agriculture companies in Michigan through a performance-based grant.

“The creation of 45 new jobs and the growth of a Michigan institution like Hudsonville Creamery are fantastic, and we cannot overstate the total economic impact of this project,” said Gary McDowell, MDARD director. “This project will help Michigan dairy farmers, lead to the development of new products and expand Michigan’s footprint in the dairy industry.”

West Michigan Works! will contribute $457,000 to support the 47% increase in employment due to the expansion.

The starting wage for jobs at Hudsonville Ice Cream is $20 per hour plus benefits. The company is hiring for positions including production, material handlers, quality testing and supervisors.