Global footprint for the Richmond area

JOHN REID BLACKWELL TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Published: January 19, 2009

The economy of the Richmond area is so closely linked to the global market that even baking bread can be an international affair.

In late 2007, the Austrian company Backaldrin International GmbH opened a sales and distribution office on Northlake Park Drive in Hanover County.

The 10,400-square-foot site is the base for the company to distribute 35 types of bread mixes, which it imports from its Austrian operations and sells to bakeries from Canada to South America.

"We sell to everybody who makes bread, from the small bakeries to the big industries," said Eberhard Roos, president of Backaldrin USA.

The company decided in 2007 to open its first U.S. operation in the Richmond area to try to build its niche in the market for specialty breads in the U.S.

"The American people are getting more and more health-conscious, and that is exactly the product we have," said Roos, who predicts 50 percent to 60 percent sales growth in North America in 2009 from its first year. In addition to distribution, the plant has a kitchen where the company demonstrates to potential customers how to bake its bread mixes.

Backaldrin is just one of the latest foreign-based firms to open operations in the Richmond area, which has long been home to many international firms. Even as the economy has slowed, interest among international firms in opening operations here has remained fairly stable, some economic-development officials say.

Since 2003, the Richmond area has seen 37 expansions or openings by foreign-affiliated companies. They amounted to about $1.9 billion in investments and created about 3,500 jobs, according to Virginia Economic Development Partnership records.

The foreign-company investments represent a little more than 40 percent of the total $4.6 billion worth of announced investments and 19,715 jobs created in the Richmond region by new or expanding businesses since 2003, according to Economic Development Partnership records. More here.