Natural foods maker plans expansion.

Byline: Sherri Buri McDonald The Register-Guard

Golden Temple of Oregon Inc., a Eugene-based maker of cereal, tea and snack bars, is embarking on the largest expansion in its 33-year history.

Riding the wave of growth in the organic and natural foods industry, Golden Temple expects its business to double, or even triple, over the next five years, CEO Kartar Singh Khalsa said Thursday.

The company projects sales of nearly $100 million in the fiscal year ending in June 2007, he said.

So Golden Temple is planning to spend $50 million to upgrade its plant and equipment during the next five years, Khalsa said.

The company's work force also is expected to expand from about 235 employees today to as many as 400 employees in five years, he said.

The announcement may come as good news to workers recently laid off at two other Eugene companies - bike manufacturer Burley Design and furniture maker Whittier Wood Products.

Employees at both manufacturers worked with their hands, operated equipment and had to be mechanically inclined, said Sat Bir Singh Khalsa, human resources director at Golden Temple.

"Most likely, some skills are transferable," he said.

Golden Temple is now hiring for about 25 openings - 13 are supervisory positions and 10 to 15 are in production or maintenance support. The company will host a career fair Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon at its factory complex at 2545 Prairie Road in northwest Eugene.

The company's expected growth should give a boost to the local economy in an industry identified several years ago by economic development officials as an "industry cluster" the area wants to support.

"It's big," Jack Roberts, executive director of the Lane Metro Partnership, said of Golden Temple's expansion.

"They've had a long history here," he said. "They're committed to the community. They're also part of the natural food cluster ...

"It's a natural for our area," Roberts said. "It draws together the agricultural history with the health conscious attitude we have here."

Golden Temple and other area natural foods producers, such as salsa maker Emerald Valley Kitchen and yogurt maker Springfield Creamery, have benefitted from the double-digit growth in grocery sales of organic and natural foods.

Last year, that market in the United States grew 14 percent to $22.8 billion, while the conventional foods market grew a little less than 2 percent, said Grant Ferrier, editor of the San Diego-based Nutrition Business Journal.

"Organic and natural foods are moving into the regular grocery trade - even Wal-Mart is talking about offering an organic line," Kartar Khalsa said.

Golden Temple's expansion will occur in phases. In the next six months, the company plans to add two cereal processing lines, which will double its production capacity of granola and cereal flakes from 40 million pounds to 80 million pounds, operations director Ajeet Khalsa said.

Then, in the next year or so, Golden Temple will add new equipment to package its breakfast cereals and Yogi-brand teas.

Also next year, the company plans to break ground on a 100,000-square-foot addition for food processing and warehouse space near its existing 200,000-square-foot factory complex. The existing factory lies on 4.5 acres owned by the company. Last year, Golden Temple arranged to lease nine acres nearby, where the addition will be built, Ajeet Khalsa said.

After the city of Eugene reinstated the West Eugene Enterprise Zone last year, Golden Temple applied for the zone's property tax waiver on a planned $11 million expansion - essentially the first phase of a broader five-year expansion. The tax savings to Golden Temple would be roughly $18 per $1,000 invested in plant or equipment, said Roberts, of the Lane Metro Partnership.

The tax break "wasn't a critical factor," CEO Khalsa said. "We were going to expand anyway. We've grown every year since we got into business. It will just help us to grow more."

Golden Temple's origins date back 33 years to a group of Sikh believers living in Eugene, who made their own granola and bread. It is a division of the privately owned Khalsa International Industries and Trades, a conglomerate of ventures, including Akal Security, a guard security company. Khalsa Industries, which is headquartered in New Mexico, has $600 million in sales worldwide.