MINFORD- A new building is under roof at SOAR business park at the Greater Portsmouth Regional Airport, and soon there will be at least 40 new jobs for Benestar Brands.

Benestar Brands makes snacks, including the Chicas brand tortilla chips, that will be manufactured at the Minford plant when it is up and running. The plant will be serving the eastern part of the country and supplying grocery store chains such as: Walmart, Kroger, and Safeway. The machinery is arriving now.

There is another Benestar plant in Los Angeles. Distance can make it difficult to move product to this part of the country.

“The process they’re using is not done anywhere else in the world,” said Scioto County Commissioner Bryan Davis, “and it will be done right here in Scioto County.”

By investing in development of sites such as the business park at the airport and others throughout the county and region, Davis said, it gives work to local trades. It makes the area more attractive to businesses. For instance that’s what drew Benestar.

“One of the things that sold them on it was they could fly into our airport,” Davis said. “We needed product. In the economic development world, it’s buildings … before we put down the first yard of concrete, we had a tenant.”

Also moving to SOAR is the Minford EMS squad, which is currently on Ohio 335 in Minford. This new location will place it near MedFlight, which is currently a tenant.