Bluffton-based Pretzels Inc. celebrates Plymouth plant opening

The salty snack maker purchased a 45,000-square-foot facility about a year ago at 2910 Commerce St. to replace production capacity lost when a June 2016 fire destroyed a Pennsylvania pretzel plant.

The company is spending $18 million to buy, build out and equip the facility, which Marshall County Economic Development Corp. said in a 2016 statement was constructed as a shell building the prior year “to attract businesses looking for a quick turnaround time from acquisition to production.”

In addition to its own Harvest Road brand, the company sells more than 900 varieties of store brand and private label pretzels.

Its fastest growing product - pretzel nuggets filled with peanut butter - will be made at the Plymouth plant, which employs 40.

“Plymouth has rolled out the red carpet for us,” Chip Mann, the company’s co-owner, said in a statement. “The community has provided tremendous support as we needed to ramp up operations quickly. I can see a long and strategic partnership with them for years to come.”

Pretzels began the facility’s $6 million buildout last November by pouring concrete to finish its floor and completed work on the building in just three months. By April it had one assembly line working and was shipping product to customers.

The building has room for a second assembly line and the company plans to increase its workforce there to 65 by 2020.