DREYERS GRAND ICE CREAM
Dreyer1s Grand Ice Cream Holdings, Inc. just completed an expansion of its current Bakersfield operation, located at 7301 District Blvd., into the largest single-location ice cream plant in the world!

The $100 million expansion of the Bakersfield Operations Center more than doubles the size of the facility, from its current 250,000 square feet to 650,000 square feet (that1s nearly 15 acres devoted to satisfying consumer1s cravings for frozen treats). The plant houses the industry’s most state-of-the-art manufacturing facility, with the capacity to churn out 70 million gallons of ice cream in addition to its current frozen snack capacity of 98 million dozens per year.

With the expansion the company is capable of producing every ice cream and frozen snack platform on the market today; including a huge research and development; and the best frozen food distribution system in the country. The number of trucks moving in an out of the plant on daily basis during peak season will average between 125 and 150.
The facility was originally built in 1988 under the Carnation name. Over the years, the plant has continued to be one of the most productive frozen snack manufacturing facilities in the country. Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream took over the facility in 2003, when it merged with Haagen-Dazs and Nestle Ice Cream Frozen snacks.

Today, Dreyer’s competes in all categories of the ice cream/frozen snack market. It claims the largest market share in the premium ice cream category and the third-largest market share in the super-premium category, which includes such favorites as Haagan-Dazs and Starbucks brands.

In October 2003, the company announced its plans to close the Union City, California plant and expand its Bakersfield operation.

Why? Many factors played into the decision, but the company said a significant reason was Bakersfield’s proximity to the dairy supply. Milk has a short life span, and the Bakersfield location allows for an average turn around time from cow to ice cream of less than a day. Other factors contributing to the decision include the capabilities of the plant’s workforce and the logistics of Bakersfield.

Logistics are an important consideration due to the products sensitivity. Dreyer’s believes ice cream and frozen snack products are more sensitive than other frozen foods and does not employ outside distributors. Instead, it operates its own distribution system, employing its own trucks and drivers, who are ice cream experts, to ensure cartons make it to the grocer’s freezer in perfect condition. The Bakersfield facility will distribute products in the Western United States and in all the company’s international markets.

Currently, the Bakersfield location employs about 500 people. The expansion is slated to increase employment by another 300 to 400 people. The company focuses on its people and capitalizes on the skills that exist within the community.

The company’s safety standards are such that, last year, the International Dairy Foods Association recognized Dreyer1s Grand Ice Cream for having the Country’s safest ice cream plants. The company captured all three worker safety awards for ice cream plant categories. In addition, the Bakersfield operation was recognized for having zero cases of lost time accidents in 2003. Working around the clock, the Bakersfield location topped a million hours of operation without a lost time accident, rare for any type of manufacturing facility.

Dreyers, a market leading international company, built on local community values.

VICTORY CIRCLE
With a shop jammed full of NASCAR racing machines in the making, Victory Circle, Inc. is always revving up its business. The company moved his race car assembly and repair shop to a new 40,000 square-foot building at 700 South Mt. Vernon Avenue in Bakersfield’s Enterprise Zone. The expanding business manufactures new stock car bodies, repair client’s cars that have been damaged, and offer customized racing parts in its spacious new retail showroom.

The company starts assembling the cars from steel pieces, welding them together to form a box-shaped, cage-like structure to which a fiberglass skin is fitted. The emerging covered skeleton follows exacting specifications standards regarding heights and lengths. NASCAR-sanctioned races use these required standards to try to equal the playing field and create more competitive racing. Stock cars that race regionally sell in the $50,000 range; touring stock cars, or those that have a more demanding U.S. race schedule, cost about $10,000 more.

Victory Circle plans to expand the business to build race cars for a growing number of drivers who compete or want to in what promoters label America’s fastest-growing spectator sport. Victory Circle is currently building about 40 race cars a year.

The Enterprise Zone was the perfect location. Victory Circle is in a very competitive business and getting the zone tax incentives gives them an edge. The company likes the Mt. Vernon location next to Freeway 58 which allows for easy access by the big specialty trucks that haul the customized race cars.
Victory Circle, a homegrown company, driven to win.

ACS CALL CENTER
ACS Corporation, the nation’s largest student loan management company, calls Bakersfield home. ACS came to the city to open its call center in 1998, and now employs 1,000 representatives.

The federal student loan processing center began operations in Bakersfield after an intensive search that involved the careful scrutiny of 300 cities. One critical enticement for Bakersfield location an available labor pool. Employers’ Training Resource and Bakersfield College offered help to provide ACS with an eager workforce. The company grew to 600 employees in the first two years.

Cost of doing business was another factor that propelled Bakersfield to the top of the site search list. The company's corporate headquarters is in Long Beach, with other centers in Utica, New York and Lombard, Illinois. The company felt Bakersfield was similar to their other sites. The business was comparable dollar-wise; and much more cost effective than expanding in Long Beach.

Founded in 1967 to provide student loan billing, payment processing, loan counseling and customer services to higher education institutions ACS services a portfolio of more than 7.7 million borrowers in the Federal Perkins, Federal Family Education and Federal Direct programs with a value of more than $77.8 billion. Over 1,000 of the nation’s leading colleges, universities, banks and other financial institutions comprise ACS’s client list.ACS answers the call in Bakersfield.

ENNIS PAINT
Ennis Paint Company considered most of California’s enterprise zones before selecting Bakersfield as the site for its new manufacturing facility. While Bakersfield’s locational advantages were evident, finding the right property within a state enterprise zone was of prime importance due to what Ennis sells: traffic paint.

Ennis Paint makes paint for striping any type of pavement, from highways to airports to shopping center parking lots. The company produces both water-based and solvent paint that typically is sprayed on the pavement, and thermoplastic paint that is actually heated to melt it onto the asphalt. Since being founded in 1976, the company has become the largest traffic-marking manufacturer in the United States, producing over 200 million gallons to date.
When considering a location to serve the western U.S., Ennis wanted a site within California due to the sheer number of streets and highways throughout the state. The company specifically sought an enterprise zone site because of the competitive advantages to companies bidding on state contracts. Because of the volume of paint sold to the state, contracts are won or lost over a difference of as little as a penny per gallon. Selecting a location within the Bakersfield Enterprise Zone insured the company of being competitive on every state bid. With other plants located in various regions across the country, Ennis Paint can ship products to any city within one to three days.

The company’s export business also has grown dramatically. Thermoplastic paint has become a worldwide commodity which is used in virtually every country. Ennis Paint has shipped product to various points in Asia, the Pacific Rim, Central and South America, and the Caribbean Islands. With sales doubling every year since 1996, Ennis Paint has become the second largest pavement-marking manufacturer in the world. Until plants are developed overseas, Bakersfield will play a key role in producing the paint to be shipped worldwide.
Ennis Paint making its mark in Bakersfield.

PLEASANT HOLIDAYS
Pleasant Holidays, one of the largest travel companies serving Hawaii, Mexico, Asia, and the South Pacific opened a reservations call center at 7500 District Boulevard in Bakersfield in 2000. The Pleasant facility currently has over 200 reservations agents.
Pleasant’s business is breaking records each month, with no let up in sight. With over 15,000 calls daily, the company serves thousands of travel agents making arrangements for their customers.
Pleasant Holidays, L.L.C. is a $400-million-a-year travel company owned by The Hogan Family Foundation, employing over 700 people. The wholesale travel operation is comprised of Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays, Pleasant Mexico Holidays, Pleasant Tahitian Holidays, Pleasant South Pacific Holidays, Japan & Orient Tours (Asia), J&O Air (worldwide air consolidation), Journeys of Discovery (Europe), Pacific Destination Services (meetings/conventions/incentive), Pleasant Island Holidays (Hawaii resident travel), and Vacation Acceptance Company (vacation financing).
Pleasant Travel Service, another of the Hogan companies, employs 1,100 people in the operation of Westlake Travel Service (retail travel agency) and four hotels in Hawaii—Royal Lahaina Resort and Kahana Beach Condominium Hotel on Maui, Royal Kona Resort on Hawaii, and Kauai Coconut Beach Resort.
Pleasant Holidays providing international travel services in Bakersfield.