Fresh-baked: Café Valley bakery associates Tina Wright, Pat Dudleston (middle) and Holly Skeens place packaging lids on Orange Cranberry Crème Cakes at the new Marion location of the bakery. Courtesy photo
Marion’s new bakery is not only only up and running, it’s increased the hours of its built-in outlet store this month.
Despite construction having ramped up during one of the snowiest winters on record, finishing touches are complete and the parking lot is filling up.
“The sign is up, the signature copper awning is up and we are very proud of the building. It is beautiful,” Cafe Valley spokesperson Amy Armstrong said.
The second facility and Eastern U.S. base for the Arizona-based baked good company Cafe Valley, the Marion bakery is legally named “CV East LLC,” internally called “Cafe Valley East” and locally known as simply the Cafe Valley bakery in Marion. Currently, the plant at Adams and 38th street produces multiple types of baked goods and employs more than 200 people full-time – and plans to add more to both the product line and staff size, Armstrong said.
“Additions to our team are predicated on the demand from our customers, so there will be even more associates added as our success continues,” she said. “We are very proud of the team we have assembled in Marion.”
The outlet store has a dedicated entrance for members of the public to buy discounted products and has been open for a couple of months. The store but recently added Wednesday hours, Armstrong said. So it’s now open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays and from noon to 6 p.m. Wednesdays.
“Our Marion facility is truly one of the most state-of-the-art baking facilities in the world,” Armstrong said. “We added new technologies not found even in our Phoenix operation in an effort to bring delicious baked goods to consumers and continue great service.”
Cafe Valley received incentives from the city of Marion, including a multimillion-dollar bond package, and has received assistance from the nonprofit Grant County Economic Growth Council. Some of the incentives offered led to more scrutiny of an incoming company than usual, including from some city council members, but Growth Council Executive Director Tim Eckerle said the company has delivered.
“Regardless of what some people have said, I think it turned out to be something very positive in the community,” he said. “They’ve assumed the role of good corporate citizen and performed as promised.”
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