BRISTOL, Va. – A snack food company won’t be asked to return any part of a financial incentive if it is acquired by another firm.
That was the consensus Monday of the city’s Economic Development Committee, which discussed prospects for Snack Alliance, which announced last week it expects to be acquired by Shearer’s Inc., of Brewster, Ohio. Snack Alliance employs about 240 people at its Commonwealth Avenue Extension production facility.
The ownership change isn’t expected to have any effect on Snack Alliance operations in the Twin City, company officials said. The firm is expected to continue its lease/purchase agreement with the city.
In late 2004, the Canadian-based firm signed a 10-year agreement to buy the 42,000-square-foot plant, which was previously Moore’s Snack Food.
Last year, the city’s Economic Development Committee requested a $75,000 one-time payment to aid Snack Alliance’s efforts to also occupy the former Dana building.
The request was approved by the Bristol Virginia Utilities Board of Directors and paid to the company from designated economic development funds.
Snack Alliance subsequently signed a three-year lease of the former production plant as a distribution center.
Committee members revisited the issue Monday during their regular meeting, but agreed all conditions of that incentive agreement have been fulfilled.
“They [Snack Alliance] did what they were asked to do with the money. So I don’t see a change in ownership changing anything,” said BVU General Counsel Walt Bressler. The lease agreement would remain in effect, regardless of who controls Snack Alliance, Bressler said.
The company has 57 months remaining on its lease/purchase agreement and continues to make a $12,000 monthly payment to the city, Economic Development Director Jerry Brown said.
Snack Alliance still owes about $680,000, plus interest, of the original $1.45 million agreement.
“We assume they will want to continue with that,” Brown said. “We haven’t heard anything negative about them, but the deal hasn’t closed.”
dmcgee@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2532
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