THE FOLLOWING IS A NEWS-GAZETTE STORY BY JENNIFER BAILEY
HENNING — It was 13 years ago that Full-Fill Industries expanded its aerosol manufacturing plant to accommodate increased volume with an exclusive agreement to manufacture ConAgra Food’s cooking sprays that had been produced at ConAgra’s Rossville plant that was closed.
Now, Full-Fill is owned by Conagra, and local officials remain hopeful about its future.
Henning Mayor Troy Wolfe said the sale “kind of had been in the works,” and it was July 1 when Conagra took over.
Wolfe said he’s not heard anything about a rumored employee meeting this week. But he has heard that with some expected changes, employees have been “really happy in the direction that it’s going.”
There’s also been rumors of another expansion and additional hiring of employees.
Wolfe looks forward to sitting down and talking more with Conagra officials.
The plant employs around 200, according to Vermilion Advantage.
Vermilion Advantage President and CEO Mike Marron met with a Conagra team a couple months ago.
It was a situation with new management reaching out, and Marron said they indicated they’d eventually like to expand operations here.
Marron said his knowledge is limited, but “it was a very positive meeting. It’s a good company.”
The company is hiring, too.
Full-Fill officials directed The News-Gazette to corporate officials about the purchase and the plant’s future. Media representatives could not be reached for comment.
With its now more than 10-year-old expansion, Full-Fill added three new production lines in a 25,000-square-foot addition to its facility, which was once the grounds of Henning High School, located on the north end of the north-central Vermilion County village. To handle the shipping demand, the company also added 108,000 square feet of space for warehousing and several loading docks.
Full-Fill was owned by the local Clapp family and started in 1999. The company has made aerosol cooking spray, including canola, oil and butter, for retail and food service markets, for private labels sold in grocery chains nationally and internationally and for the Crisco and Mazola cooking spray brands.
According to the company, Conagra Brands is one of North America’s leading branded food companies. Brands include Reddi-wip, Slim Jim, Birds Eye, Marie Callender’s, Banquet, Healthy Choice, Angie’s BOOMCHICKAPOP, Chef Boyardee, Swiss Miss and Vlasic.
FOR COMPLETE ACCESS TO NEWS-GAZETTE STORY PLEASE GO TO https://www.news-gazette.com/business/agriculture/full-fill-looks-to-future-with-new-owner-conagra/article_0a70c7c0-6f92-11ef-be26-e76dcdd51c7a.html
