EXPANSIONS

From Page 8 e plant employs 175, and the new plant is expected to have a minimal impact on hiring. e St. Clair plant has been in operation for 130 years. In 1996, Cargill bought it and all the other North American assets of the Diamond Crystal Co., a division of a Dutch company, Akzo Nobel N.V. e St. Clair plant is the only plant in the world making Alberger akes, with the salt coming from underground through a process known as solution mining. About 400 million years ago, a vast expanse of horizontal salt beds formed under much of what is now Michigan as ancient bodies of water receded.

Founded in 1865, Cargill, a food conglomerate based in Minnetonka, Minn., is the largest privately held corporation in the U.S., with scal 2022 revenue of $165 billion. e family-owned company employs 155,000 in 70 countries.

What makes Diamond Crystal kosher salt unique is the proprietary process Cargill uses to make it. Developed in the 1880s and known as the Alberger process, it results in pyramid shaped akes that are larger than crystals of salt made in other processes, which the company claims provides the same amount of avor using 30 percent less salt.

 e third largest expansion in the county was the $20 million expansion of the Marysville Ethanol plant in Marysville. e other six expansion projects ranged from $100,000 to $550,000.

 ree other recent expansions into the county have been by the Dearborn-based LaFontaine Automotive

Whiskey

From Page 10

“Their whiskey is really good. It shouldn’t be that good,” said Jones.

Dooley was effusive in his praise.

“I do like whiskey. I am Irish, so I’m genetically engineered to like it,” he said.

“RenMan’s is good. It has complex flavors and a smooth finish. The complex flavoring is what surprised me because it usually takes years of aging in various barrels to achieve that,” he said. “I’d compare the initial batch I tasted to a 12-year-old Redbreast or Tullamore.” man’s background and their decision to start a business based on a radical approach to making whiskey, told Fitzgerald they were renaissance men. million new barrels each year.

Redbreast and Tullamore are both Irish whiskeys.

And so the company name was born.

If and when a U.S. patent is issued, Weideman and Fitzgerald have a much more ambitious plan for raising revenue than just selling whiskey. They want to license their technology to distilleries around the world.

“We want to sell the invention,” Weideman said.

There are two incentives for distilleries to buy the technology. The most obvious reason is the drastic reduction in the time needed to get product to market. The other reason is the process reduces by orders of magnitude the amount of white oak needed.

Weideman says their process reduces the amount of oak needed by 98 percent. Or, as he puts it more starkly, a distillery using traditional methods can make between 600 and 700 bottles of eightyear whiskey for each tree. “We can make 34,000 bottles per oak tree,” he said.

They will get temperature fluctuations needed simply by turning the heat down at night.

RenMan also plans to plant one white oak tree for every 10 bottles it sells, with fths selling for $80 each.

At Wrigley Hall, they will distill their whiskey in 55-gallon stainless steel barrels, using staves of charred wood inside.

Group. In November 2021, it opened its rst dealership in St. Clair County when it bought the St. Clair Chevrolet Buick GMC dealership in China Township.

Last October, the company expanded its presence in the county when it bought Bill MacDonald Ford in the city of St. Clair.

In addition, the company has bought 36 acres next to the Chevrolet dealership and plans a large expansion, including new-car show rooms and a much bigger service department. e dealership has grown from 82 employees when it was bought to nearly 100, according to Mike Walls, the general manager at both dealerships. e Ford dealership has grown from 60 employees to 66. e company has bought eight acres of land on Fred Moore Highway nearby to possibly support that dealership. ere is no timetable, yet, for any construction.

LaFontaine also bought SP Automotive Re nishing in Marine City last August and renamed it the LaFontaine Collision Center of St. Clair.

Walls was asked a year ago to join the board of the county’s chamber of commerce, and he said he has been actively growing LaFontaine’s presence in the community.

It was a major sponsor of last July’s annual Riverfest boat races in the St. Mary’s River, o the breakwall in the city of St. Clair and sponsored the large reworks show at the annual Icy Bazaar ice show in January at the city’s plaza overlooking the river.

Ryan LaFontaine, the company’s CEO, said business has been so robust at the two St. Clair dealerships that he would pursue buying other franchises in the county when and if they become available.

“We really wanted to become part of the fabric of the community,” he said. “The amount of people who came out for the grand opening of the Ford dealership was amazing.”

Contact: thenderson@crain.com

(231) 499-2817; @TomHenderson2