The Snohomish County Economic Development Council is hopeful that it can help find a new local home for StockPot Inc., a maker of gourmet soups that employs several hundred people.
Deborah Knutson, president of the development council, confirmed that she has met several times with executives from StockPot, which is being forced out by the planned Brightwater sewage treatment plant south of Maltby.
The company and economic development officials have looked at several possible sites for StockPot’s relocation. Knutson said all the sites have been in south Snohomish County or around Everett.
Ever since StockPot announced it couldn’t coexist with a sewage plant, Knutson’s office has been determined help StockPot stay in the county. That’s also the hope of the company, she said.
“They told us their employees are really valuable to them, and they know if they leave the county and the state, most of the employees wouldn’t move with them,” Knutson said, adding that the majority of StockPot’s 300 to 400 employees live in Snohomish County or east King County.
Jerry Buckley, a spokesman for Campbell Soup Co., which owns StockPot, said Friday that StockPot’s intention was to stay in this area. But no decisions have been made yet about a relocation.
StockPot has until July 1, 2006, to find a new home. That’s the date King County is set to begin construction on its 114-acre, $1.3 billion facility just north of StockPot along Highway 9. King County and StockPot agreed last month on how much King County will pay for the company’s relocation.
StockPot, which got its start in Redmond, moved five years ago to its 100,000-square-foot headquarters and production plant north of Woodinville. The company makes the only nationally distributed brand of fresh, refrigerated soups. Its products are especially popular with restaurants.
The Economic Development Council has in recent years given renewed attention to retaining local businesses, in addition to attracting new ones to the county, Knutson said.
“It’s usually easier to keep ones that are here than to recruit new ones,” she said.
Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.
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