FreshFry is expanding its Louisville footprint in a big way with a new manufacturing facility.
The food tech company, founded in 2014, developed an all-natural, plant-based pod that extends the life of frying oil by collecting dissolved impurities, ultimately saving restaurant operators time, labor and cost. Soon, those pods will be produced in-house with the build out of a 10,000-square-foot expansion at its headquarters at 2600 River Green Circle along the Ohio River in East Louisville.
“We’re so excited to expand our dynamic Louisville-based headquarters with a brand-new, in-house production facility. With manufacturing returning to our hometown, we’re thrilled to see what this next chapter holds for us,” said Jacob Huff, FreshFry co-founder and chief operating officer, in a news release. “FreshFry is proud to help reinforce the city’s reputation of growing sustainable brands. Louisville’s central location perfectly positions us to continue to grow and expand our mission: to transform waste into a promising future.”
FreshFry has a five-year lease at the building, which it leases through River Green Development LLC.
The facility will bring six jobs to the community, including manufacturing associates and warehouse managers. Huff said FreshFry will invest more than $500,000 by the time the first phase of the project is complete and the production line is fully staffed.
Previously, FreshFry Pods were manufactured by a third party based in the Midwest, Huff continued.
"FreshFry’s growth is on pace to exceed [the third party's] capacity so it was time to invest in ourselves to take over pod production," he said.
The pods were created by FreshFry co-founder and CEO Jeremiah Chapman, a Louisville native and University of Louisville alum. We caught up with him recently on the Access Louisville podcast, where he shared how the company has thrived since the harrowing early days of the pandemic. Listen here.
Today, FreshFry supplies pods for several big-name restaurants, such as Hattie B’s Hot Chicken, and franchisees for Qdoba Mexican Eats, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen and Rock ‘N Roll Sushi. Earlier this year, it announced an expansion to Canadian markets through Sysco Canada and TTS Sales and Marketing. The company declined to disclose revenue.
FreshFry, which currently employs 12 people, also distributes frying oil test kits, which tests the contaminant levels of fryer oil in the home and indicates when it's time to filter or change out the oil. The kits are a part of FreshFry’s Optimized Performance Point service (OPP), which is an oil analysis helping standardize the discard point of frying oil through a personalized, scientific process.
