The conveyor belt is whizzing and the smell of garlic fills the air at Arizona Canning Co., where production has begun.
The first batch of Sun Vista and La Costeña brand beans emblazoned with a "manufactured in Tucson, Ariz." label shipped out last week, plant manager Shane Gesbeck said.
Conservas La Costeña, one of Mexico's largest canned-food companies, purchased the former Slim-Fast building at 8755 S. Rita Road in June 2006.
Arizona Canning Co. LLC, the company formed for the venture, sits on 85 acres in a 440,000-square-foot building.
The former diet-drink manufacturing plant underwent 16 months of renovations before production began about seven weeks ago, Gesbeck said.
At the starting line, the company is constructing 720 cans per minute on a fully automated system that welds metal sheets into cylinders. From there, the cans travel by conveyer belt to be filled, sealed, X-rayed and sterilized. The cans are filled at a pace of about 300 to 600 per minute, depending on size, Gesbeck said.
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Once they are sterilized and cooled, the cans are adorned with labels and stacked in a warehouse, ready for shipping to store shelves in Arizona, California, New Mexico and parts of Texas.
The operation currently has around 50 full time employees and is in the process of hiring an additional 20, Gesbeck said.
"We're not looking for people with bean-making or canning experience," he said. "We'll train everyone."
The company will hold a pre-employment orientation Nov. 29 at 6:30 p.m. at its South East side facility. Beginning Monday, anyone interested can call 520-663-4720 to sign up for the session, which will accommodate up to 100 people.
Manufacturing accounted for 11.2 percent of Tucson-area jobs in 1980 but only 7.6 percent at the beginning of 2007. Economists predict these jobs will continue to decline to 5.3 percent by 2036.
But Tucson has welcomed several new manufacturers in recent years.
In October 2005, Pella Corp. announced it would bring 450 manufacturing jobs to the old Weiser Lock facility on the Southwest Side.
Other announced manufacturing operations in the past two years, and their expected employment, include:
● Wisconsin-based Latitude Corp., a metal manufacturer, 949 W. Silverlake Road, up to 50 people when it opens in the spring.
● MacSteel Service Centers USA, 6984 E. Century Park Drive; metal fabrication, 25 jobs.
● Glass Fiber Inc., 8500 S. Rita Road; aerospace insulation, 108 jobs (has since sold the building, plans to build plant on adjacent property);
● Computer Designs Inc., 6270 S. Country Club Road; plastics, 25 jobs.
● Solon AG, 2700 E. Executive Drive, Suite 130; solar-electric systems, 40 jobs.
Company profile
Name: Conservas La Costeña (local operation is Arizona Canning Co.)
Founded: 1923
Headquarters: Tulpetlac, state of Mexico (near Mexico City)
Employees: 2,000
Other plants: Guasave, Sinaloa, and San Luis Potosí state.
Products: Beans, tomato purées, ketchup, vegetables and others
Markets: Mexico, Latin America, the United States, Europe, Asia
Source: Conservas La Costeña