Central and South West Corporation: electric recipes.

For food processing decision-makers with an interest in growth and profitability in the south-central United States, Central and South West Corporation (CSW) offers a one-stop information source to meet a broad spectrum of today's business needs in your industry - from the most recent data on available sites for business relocations to the latest in energy service technologies.

As a Fortune 400 company, CSW is the nation's second-largest investor-owned electric service system, operating four electric utility companies in 152,000-square miles of Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Arkansas. Together, the US-based utilities of the CSW system serve more than one-and-a-half million customers - or a total of about 4.4-million people and an extremely diverse industrial and commercial customer base. Recently, CSW further expanded its global presence with the acquisition of SEEBOARD, plc, an electric utility in the southern region of England serving about 2-million customers. Combined with the other CSW energy services subsidiaries, the company has integrated a multifaceted product mix for customers.

Progressive Utilities, Progressive Outlook

Most experts agree that the energy services world, especially in the U.S., will look much different in the next few years. Impending deregulation of the $250 billion utility industry will encompass the largest structural change that any industry has ever gone through. Successful competitors will need to offer more than electric power at reasonable prices; these firms will have to broaden their product and services mix to assist their customers in many different ways. As one of the most progressive energy services organizations in the country, CSW has emerged as a leader in a number of related fields, especially economic development.

At CSW, we are convinced that we are taking economic development into the 21st century - creating a new model of what a business partnership should be. Our economic development team offers comprehensive, objective data for our entire four-state area; an unprecedented level of industry-specific knowledge; key contacts in economic development throughout the CSW service area; workforce training expertise; help with financing; and regulatory assistance. Additionally our team is working to develop its own line of products and services to meet the food industries needs.

Through CSW's energy-service subsidiaries, we can also offer the food processing industry access to new and innovative technologies, energy management solutions, advanced engineering, power generation, telecommunications, and help with real estate development.

Using cutting-edge industrial database technology, and the vast stores of local and regional information available to its energy-service companies, we offer a unique source of site location and business development intelligence.

Whether it's local and state business incentives, labor statistics, regulatory data and business costs, or "big-picture" regional profiles, our database can provide it. Our economic development professionals can even match existing, available properties to food industry specifications. And, of course, it's all free and all in strict confidence.

South Central U.S.: The Place to Be

Bordering seven central U.S. states and four Mexico states, CSW's domestic service area is within one-day's drive of 75-percent of the U.S. population, within one-and-a-half-day's drive of 60-percent of the Mexico population, and offers powerful growth benefits to the food processing industry. Without question, for CSW customers, there are some of the lowest energy costs in the nation; there are abundant natural resources, well-developed intermodal transportation systems, high-quality labor, low costs of doing business, and some of the nation's most aggressive state and local business incentives for new and relocating businesses. As examples, in Oklahoma, SIC Code 20 - Food Processors - may be eligible for lower payroll thresholds to receive cash back in the Quality Jobs Program, the state's major incentive known nationally as one of the premier investment incentives in the country. Additionally, the Texas Agricultural Finance Authority has increased its loan guarantee finance program for value-added processing of Texas products from $25 million in 1995 to $200 million in 1996.

A large number of food processing and related businesses have already found a home in the CSW service territory. And the industry is continuing to grow. Some recent investments:

* An already booming Oklahoma pie and cookie manufacturer has been so successful in prepared food bids that it has added two new frozen-dough plants in the same area in the last year.

* In Arkansas, a young company has found a booming business in the production of breading for area poultry processors.

* In Northeast Texas, a new smokehouse is packaging barbecue for Sam's Clubs and other national retailers.

* A chicken processor in Northwest Louisiana has found a growing market in the production of nuggets for fast food retailers.

* A long-time Colorado meat processor recently relocated with a state-of-the-art bacon plant that can produce two-million pounds of bulk product weekly for the food service industry.

* A tomato producer is building the nation's largest greenhouse facility (43 acres) in CSW territory in Southwest Texas to produce 18-million pounds of beef-steak tomatoes annually for high-end supermarkets in the Northeast.

Those are only a few of the recent successes with which CSW has been involved by helping in the developing, relocating, or expanding food businesses. Promoting growth and giving business people the information they need to make sound business development decisions is a fulltime job for CSW's economic development staff. What sets us apart is a diversity of services, industry knowledge, and the variety of options we offer to our clients. Our job is to meet and surpass their needs and expectations - whatever those needs might be.

When it comes to economic development, there's a difference between site and vision. Available buildings and real estate are just the beginning. CSW offers more than sites. Much more. We offer the vision and help needed for a company to realize its full potential - long after it's become part of the CSW service area.

Our job is not just to sell kilowatt-hours.

Our job is to meet customer needs and help them grow.