{"id":33453,"date":"2023-07-08T14:34:42","date_gmt":"2023-07-08T18:34:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=33453"},"modified":"2023-07-08T14:34:46","modified_gmt":"2023-07-08T18:34:46","slug":"frinsa-fish-canning-company-nixes-plans-plant-in-lakeland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2023\/07\/08\/frinsa-fish-canning-company-nixes-plans-plant-in-lakeland\/","title":{"rendered":"Frinsa Fish Canning Company Nixes Plans Plant in Lakeland"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Frinsa fish-canning company which\u00a0had planned to spend $21 million\u00a0<\/a>to convert a newly constructed building off Chestnut Road into its U.S. base has had a change of heart after seeing the realities of construction costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cFrinsa informed us a few months ago that they have decided not to expand in the U.S. at this time,\u201d Steve Scruggs, president of the Lakeland Economic Development Council<\/a>. Scruggs said, \u201cThey cited the significant increase in construction costs to build out the new facility as the primary reason.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The City Commission in November approved giving Frinsa a $400,000 incentive to help mitigate its impact fees, but LEDC senior vice president Katie Worthington Decker said they had not yet received the funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plant near Kathleen High School would have employed up to 115 people, with an average salary of $54,206. Frinsa officials said they had planned to open in October or November of this year.<\/p>\n\n\n

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 \u201cWe are very grateful to have helped Frinsa consider Lakeland as a potential manufacturing site,\u201d Lakeland Mayor Bill Mutz said Friday afternoon. \u201cUnfortunately, the inflationary cost shifts during their evaluation period made it an unaffordable alternative, which we totally understand.  If in the future it becomes a justifiable option, Lakeland will welcome the opportunity to reengage with them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lakeland Economic Development Council began working with\u00a0Frinsa<\/a>, a family-owned business after the company reached out to Enterprise Florida in Tallahassee to find a suitable spot to open a facility in the U.S.usiness reporting is made possible in part by:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Otis Coracides, who had been named Frinsa\u2019s managing director for the Lakeland operation, said last November when the incentive was approved that Lakeland\u2019s location along Interstate 4, near the Port of Tampa and several airports and rail lines, was a factor in choosing the Swan City, as well as Lakeland\u2019s friendly welcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of the agreement, Frinsa had promised to invest at least $20 million in capital improvements related to the facility \u2014 twice the minimum amount \u2014 in order to be eligible for the incentive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 180,000-square-foot facility at 900 Chestnut Road \u2014 south of Memorial Boulevard and in view of Kathleen High School \u2014 was built in the last 18 months, but not yet occupied. The company had planned to transform the building into a canning plant for its lines of tuna, salmon, sardines, and chicken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company\u2019s brands include Frinsa, Ribeira, The Nice Fisherman, and Seaside. Currently, in the U.S., Frinsa provides private-label products for Trader Joe\u2019s and others. Company officials said in November that they hoped to create a partnership with Lakeland-based Publix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is unclear what the building will be used for in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Frinsa fish-canning company which\u00a0had planned to spend $21 million\u00a0to convert a newly constructed building off Chestnut Road into its U.S. base has had a change of heart after seeing the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[5391],"class_list":["post-33453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-frinsa-fish-canning-company-nixes-plans-plant-in-lakeland"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}