Otter Tail Corp. has signed a letter of intent to purchase Idaho Pacific Holdings Inc., a processor of dehydrated potatoes based in Ririe, Idaho.
The company operates three potato dehydration plants in the United States and Canada, employing 380 workers. It posted $46.2 million in revenues in 2003.
The largest plant is in Ririe, another in Center, Colo., and the third at Souris, Prince
Edward Island, Canada.
"It's the first food processing manufacturer we would have in our family of companies," said Amy Richardson, communications director for Otter Tail Corp.
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Richard Zirkelbach, president of Idaho Pacific, confirmed Monday that negotiations are under way for Otter Tail Corp. to purchase the company. He would not comment on details of the purchase.
Idaho Pacific supplies products for use in mashed potatoes, snacks, baked goods and frozen side dishes. Its customers include many of the largest domestic and international food-manufacturing customers in the snack food, food service and bakery segments of the food industry.
The company exports its products to Europe, the Middle East, Pacific Rim and Central America.
The three plants are in potato-growing areas. "Each of those regions is a grower base. Each area serves an operation," said Zirkelbach, who has been president of the company since 1989, two years after it began.
Idaho Pacific is in the first or second market position in all but one of its four major distribution channels of industrial food processing, baking, foodservice and export, according to Lauris Molbert, Otter Tail Corp. chief operation officer.
The acquisition is anticipated to be completed within the next month, Richardson said.
Idaho Pacific would be the 15th company to be owned by Otter Tail Corp. since its early 1980s diversification from Otter Tail Power Co., begun in 1907 at Fergus Falls, Minn., as an electric utility.
Otter Tail Corp. has more than 3,000 employees in electric utility operations, health services, manufacturing, plastics, construction, transportation and telecommunications and serves customers in all 50 states and Canada.
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The corporation posted $753.2 million in sales in 2003 and net income of $39.7 million, according to Hoover's Inc., an online database of 12 million companies.
Otter Tail Corp. appears in Nasdaq exchange listings under the ticker symbol OTTR.
Readers can reach Forum Business Editor Craig McEwen at (701) 241-5502
