FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Atlantic Natural Foods Announces $1.4MM Investment in Eastern North Carolina
Will consolidate operations at existing Nashville, NC facility
Nashville, NC— Atlantic Natural Foods, LLC (ANF) today announced that it will be consolidating two of its facilities, bringing warehousing, and label and casing operations from their Rocky Mount, NC facility into their principal plant in Nashville, NC.
The consolidation will take place in November 2017 and will reduce operational costs through increased efficiencies. The company’s principals will invest $1.4 Million during the process to upgrade equipment and merge administrative offices that service their Loma Linda, Kaffree Roma, and neat brands.
ANF may further consolidate, moving its neat operations to the Nashville facility. The company will complete its review of that move in the next few weeks which could bring additional jobs to the area as well as create further efficiencies.
“We are proud to have been part of the Rocky Mount community for the past 10 years,” said Steve Morris, chief operating officer of ANF. “Unfortunately, due to the pressures placed on small and medium-sized businesses throughout the U.S. and lack of any real local support, we saw no option but to move those operations to Nashville.”
ANF markets a variety of shelf stable plant-based protein food items that are produced in the U.S., with U.S. labor and materials provided by U.S. farmers. Among the many benefits of shelf stable foods is their ability to provide safe, nutritional meals in disaster relief situations. Despite the company’s attempts to play a larger role in relief efforts for vegetarians, their products were not on the “approved” list by the USDA and were informed by the agency to get in line, a process that can take years to complete, regardless of need. Additionally, freight companies recently increased rates due to government demand for truck service in the area, placing even more strain on ANF operations.
“It’s just hard for our business,” commented Mr. Morris.
“Owning a small business has never been easy, but it is disappointing to experience the uphill battle against stifling government processes,” said J. Douglas Hines, chairman and general partner of ANF. “Regardless, we are not giving up and plan to work with congressional members in the coming weeks to see how we in North Carolina, and others around the country, may actually work with our government to look for solutions.”
About Atlantic Natural Foods:
Atlantic Natural Foods markets Loma Linda®, Neat® and Kaffree Roma™ products. The company operates its own manufacturing facility headquartered in Nashville, NC. To learn more about Atlantic Natural Foods, please visit www.atlanticnaturalfoods.com or contact the company at 252.212.9000 x 102 or info@atlanticnaturalfoods.com.
Contact: EVAN BURKHART
FRENCH/WEST/VAUGHAN
EBURKHART@FWV-US.COM
919.277.1158
