(Janesville, WI) NaturPak Pet, a new venture of natural food manufacturer and co-packer IPM Foods, will be expanding its operations into a new 162,000 SF building that will be located in the Janesville’s STH 11 Business Park. The company will design, manufacture, package and distribute high-quality, natural wet pet food products. Construction is slated to be finished by mid-2019 and once the turn-key facility is fully-operational, staffing levels are projected to reach up to 100 +/- full-time positions.
NaturPak Pet, which is already leveraging Janesville-based IPM Foods’ BPA-free Tetra Pak cartons, is positioned to capitalize on the premium pet food market. “As a leader in natural food products, with 35 years of experience with packaging container technology, we saw a huge opportunity to expand into the wet pet food market by providing nutrient-rich products and packaging services to pet food brand owners,” said IPM Foods co-owner Pawel Marciniak.
Badger Property Investments (BPI) is serving as the project’s developer, while Gilbank Construction is providing construction services. Architectural and engineering services were provided by Angus Young Associates. Bill Mears (Coldwell Banker Commercial McGuire Mears & Associates) represented the developer.
The City of Janesville facilitated this project by providing a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) package.
According to James Otterstein, Rock County Economic Development Manager, “Food processing and packaging is well represented throughout the Janesville-Beloit MSA and we are excited to add another company into this targeted industry cluster.”