The effort to bring a fourth pet food manufacturer to the Richmond area began with a brief, late-September 2015 meeting in Cleveland between a site-selection consultant and a representative of the area's economic development group.
The process by which Blue Buffalo came to decide upon Richmond as the location for its new manufacturing and research and development facility was straightforward but at times tedious, often raising questions from the public and area media about what was coming, and who might be affected.
Valerie Shaffer, president of the Economic Development Corp. of Wayne County, encountered Brian Corde, a representative of New Jersey-based Atlas Insight, on the sidelines of a fall forum for the Industrial Asset Management Council, a real-estate trade association with dozens of city and state partnerships throughout the country.
During this meeting Corde told Shaffer he was seeking a centralized, Midwest location in which a pet food manufacturer he represented could build a new distribution facility. What would follow would be a seven-month process that ultimately would land the area its biggest jobs commitment since 2012.
According to Shaffer, she and Corde remained in touch regarding the prospective deal, and Shaffer, a few weeks after the encounter, submitted demographic and site availability documentation to Atlas with hopes of giving Richmond a shot at landing the multimillion-dollar facility that was in the works.
As the weeks rolled on, Shaffer continued her efforts to sway Corde and company representatives to what east-central Indiana had to offer — plenty of space, a committed workforce and well-coordinated incentives from local and state government. The plan, which eventually was amended to be a manufacturing facility rather than a warehouse, called for an investment of $147 million and the creation of 165 well-paying jobs, as well as improvements to local infrastructure.