Snack-food maker Baptista's Bakery to get tax credits for adding jobs at Franklin plant

Snack-food maker Baptista’s Bakery will receive $300,000 in state tax credits if the Franklin firm adds 125 jobs and spends $7.8 million on machinery, equipment and other improvements over three years, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. said Tuesday.

The contract was signed in March, WEDC spokesman Mark Maley said, and it appears Baptista’s already has hired a significant number of new employees toward the goal. The firm currently has 46 open positions, director of manufacturing John Tucker said.

Baptista’s corporate parent, Charlotte, N.C.-based Snyder’s-Lance Inc., asked WEDC to delay announcing the agreement because of “some changes at the organization,” Snyder’s-Lance spokesman Joey Shevlin said.

Snyder’s-Lance acquired Baptista's, 4625 W. Oakwood Park Drive, in 2014. At the time, Baptista’s had 375 employees.

It had about 400 when the tax-credit agreement was reached, and has doubled employment over the last five years as business grew, according to a WEDC staff review summarizing the deal.

As part of the agreement, Baptista’s said it would create up to 118 new production jobs at a starting wage of $13.71 an hour, and seven salaried jobs at an average wage of $36.40 an hour, according to the staff review.

In 2012, the company completed a $70 million expansion and equipment upgrade that roughly doubled the size of its building to 260,000 square feet. Baptista's received up to $2.26 million in state tax credits and a $500,000 grant from the City of Franklin in connection with that expansion.

Baptista’s dates to 1999, when the Gardetto family launched the firm after selling a previous business, Snak-Ens maker Gardetto's Bakery, to General Mills.