Innovate Pets closes facility

Dog and cat food producer Innovate Pets, which moved into Blair Bend Industrial Park last year, has shut down operations in Loudon.

County Mayor Rollen “Buddy” Bradshaw told commissioners toward the end of Monday’s lengthy Loudon County Commission workshop that the company is now defunct.

“They came out strong,” Bradshaw said after the workshop. “I think they overestimated their market a little bit, and so ended up just not being able to — the demand ultimately didn’t meet the production. ... They had their employees come in, they were running some production, but even the small amount of production they were running was meeting their needs and, of course, that wasn’t very economically sound.”

Bradshaw learned of the company’s closure about two weeks ago. He called the decision disappointing.

“You never want to see a business fail, and especially one that I had such a close hand in, but I understand what they were doing,” Bradshaw said. “The Chinese market is a little bit different.”

Commissioners in January 2017 approved up to $10,000 to be used for utility upgrades to the property. Loudon City Council in March 2017 matched with $10,000.

Tracy Blair, county budget director, previously said the manufacturer looked to make a $7 million-$10 million investment in Loudon County.

“I never had confidence that it was a real stable company to start with,” Van Shaver, commissioner, said after the workshop. “It just never did sound stable to me and I thought investing taxpayer dollars on it was a mistake from the front end.”

The company was a joint venture between Innovate International Group and Siam Inter Pacific Co., Ltd., in Bangkok, Thailand. Innovate Pets joined Innovate Manufacturing in Hardin Valley in the U.S. under the Innovate International Group umbrella.

“It’s the next step forward is what it’s going to be,” Bradshaw said. “Like I said, the upgrades the county and the city did as far as utilities go, the upgrades that were done to the interior and the exterior of the building, I think that makes it a prime target for another business, and probably pretty soon I hope.”

Henry Cullen, commission chairman, said the news was “very disappointing.”

“We tried it,” Cullen said. “We brought a company in and it didn’t work out for whatever reasons, and I don’t know the details of why they left. I want the building to be used for something. ... It’s far better than what it was, so from that standpoint Buddy’s right.”

The closure leaves a 30,000-square-foot building at 210 Williamson Drive needing a tenant. Bradshaw said property owner Massey Properties LLC may have already reached out to Jack Qualls, Loudon County Economic Development Agency executive director, about marketing the building.

“I think you look at that building when they first came ... that building was decrepit, it was old, it was dirty,” Bradshaw said. “That building has been revamped. So I think from an EDA standpoint, for being able to be attractive to a business, I think — of course, we would have loved to see them be successful, but I think we’ve also got a very marketable building.”