• AGRICULTURE
Operating out of three sites in South San Francisco, the San Francisco Spice Co. wanted to consolidate, streamline operations and lower costs. They scheduled trucking routes to send goods out to market to avoid the rush-hour congestion of a major metropolitan area, but that didn’ t always mean drivers weren’ t stuck in traffic.
When the company began searching for a new location, it conducted a multi-year, nationwide search first with an eye on the East Coast, with fewer challenges to relocate and lower freight shipping rates. Executives traveled to Charlottesville, Va., Plano, Texas, Reno, Nev. and the Willamette Valley in Oregon, just to name a few.
The competition among cities to draw large manufacturing plants is fierce. San Francisco Spice Co. President Mike Vinnicombe says the Woodland City Hall ended up sealing the deal with the City’ s accessibility and willingness to work with them.“ They are one of the most effective that we ran into in the country,” he says.“ You could have a meeting with the decision-makers and get a decision.”
Today, the San Francisco Spice Co. develops new products and manufactures its two brands— Dr. McDougall’ s Right Foods and Mike’ s Mighty Good Craft Ramen— out of a 175,000-squarefoot, state-of-the-art facility in Woodland, among what has emerged as a cluster of top food and agriculture companies.
“ Woodland has got it all,” says Vinnicombe, who helped relocate the business to the area in 2015.
Woodland isn’ t the place most people would think to house an international company— a small town in the Central Valley surrounded by farmland and proud of its historic roots. Yet, the city of 60,000 residents is home to more than two dozen international companies and has become what one international trade expert called a model for growth and prosperity. City leaders have aggressively courted car dealerships, big-box stores, seed research companies that have top-notch laboratories, and food distributors that have brought advances in new technology.
“ The dynamic that they are creating, the shared vision that they have throughout their community, there’ s really something to it,” Andrew Grant told an international business luncheon this summer, when he served as the president and CEO at the Northern California World Trade Center.
“ I call it ' the Woodland model,'” he added.
“ Woodland kept coming to the forefront as a city that supports agribusiness. It seemed to be a good fit.”
— Adam Englehardt, president of U. S. operations, Boundary Bend Olives
NEW BUSINESS That Woodland model, Grant explains, is one where a small city has held onto its small-town roots while successfully attracting global trade. One reason businesses choose the city: location.
Woodland sits along major transportation routes, appealing to manufacturers that need to ship product out. Sacramento International Airport is just eight miles away. Interstate 5, the key north-south thoroughfare, and state Highway 113 run through the city. Food processors can ship freight by rail and along the Sacramento River.
The city is the seat of Yolo County government, which has brought jobs and a new courthouse. And 20 miles away is the state capital, giving business and city leaders easy access to government agencies and lawmakers. Employees can also draw from nearby educational talent at UC Davis( one of the country’ s top agricultural schools, host of the World Food Center and focused on ag innovation) and Sacramento State.
In 2014, Australian company Boundary Bend also selected Woodland for its California base after an in-depth analysis brought the city to the top of the list. For them, the climate needed to be right for growing olives— not too hot in late summer because that could decrease the oil in the olives, and relatively free of frost in the spring and fall harvest months.
The fertile soil and the temperate climate have brought farmers to the area since the mid-1800s, and the food and agriculture sector drives much of Woodland’ s economy. Yolo County, along with the adjacent Solano and Colusa counties, offered a great climate for olive growing.
Add to that the businesses already in Woodland that could fill Boundary Bend’ s needs: parts suppliers, agri-suppliers, employees who had worked in seed research, nut processing or food packaging, a belt manufacturer and engineers.
“ Woodland kept coming to the forefront as a city that supports agribusiness,” says Adam Englehardt, who heads up Boundary Bend’ s U. S. operations, which produces olive oil under the name Cobram Estate.“ It seemed to be a good fit.”
In 2014, the company set up on 8.8 acres in the industrial area of town where they built an olive oil mill, bottling facilities, an olive oil laboratory and administrative offices. They’ ve grown quickly with a gross revenue of $ 20 million,
44 comstocksmag. com | November 2017