Snack food producer Gary Poppins is moving closer to starting operations in the former Stelrema building north of Knox. But Starke County Economic Development Foundation Executive Director Charlie Weaver now says it probably won’t happen until 2018. “The person that is going to occupy it had a lease to do so with an option,” he told the Hamlet Town Council Wednesday. “They exercised the option and have purchased the building now, so they got rid of the lease, but their equipment is getting here later. They’re increasing the capacity of what they had several times over. So they had to order the equipment, and it’s probably not going to be here until the first of January.”
He added that the company has hired a plant manager, who has bought a house in Starke County. Weaver expects that Gary Poppins will set up an employment recruitment website in the near future.
