Butte Lands New Frozen Pizza Plant
Butte beat out Jeno Paulucci’s hometown Monday to land the frozen pizza king’s latest multimillion-dollar frozen-food plant and the 600 jobs it will create.
It was one of Montana’s biggest economic coups in decades and a triumph for Butte, where the economy has struggled for years as mining declined.
Paulucci announced from Luigino’s headquarters in Duluth, Minn., that he would open the plant by the end of 1995, but still hoped to open an aborted plant in his hometown, Hibbing, Minn.
The 231,000-square-foot Butte plant will employ 600 people almost immediately on opening and will create about 400 spinoff jobs in the community, said Evan Barrett, executive director of the Butte Local Development Corp.
“These jobs are permanent, fulltime positions with a full benefits package,” Barrett said. “They pay a good health and welfare package, adequate insurance, stuff like that.”