Jeffersonville's Wyandot Inc. to get new owner

Wyandot Inc.’s 200 Jeffersonville employees will soon have a new employer.

Doan Edmundson, the company’s local vice president of operations, confirmed Thursday that the Marion, Ohio-based company is finalizing the sale of its Jeffersonville assets to an undisclosed buyer. The transfer, he said, is scheduled to take effect Jan. 3 and the buyer’s name will be made public at that time.

“We are in the process of closing the deal,” Edmundson said. “The plant will keep operating. This is the best thing that could happen to the plant.”

Wyandot, a privately-held firm, manufactures private-label and contract snacks such as potato, tortilla and corn chips, extruded cheese snacks and popcorn according to the company’s Web site. Its Marion, Ohio, and Jeffersonville facilities can produce 150 million pounds of snacks annual, the site says.

Hoover and Ava Brown founded the company in 1936 via a $750 investment with the intent of selling popcorn to movie theaters and ballparks. The company began production of private-label snack foods in the 1960s, according to the Web site.

According to Clark County property tax records, Wyandot owns a 142,000-square-foot manufacturing facility on 7.3 acres at 125 Peacely St. It also leases warehouse space at 1531 Plank Road.