Displaying items tagged: foodagri

If patronage of local Christmas tree lots and farms is any indication, then Michigan residents are really in the holiday spirit this year.

DUTTON — Opening a business in arguably the hardest hit industry of the COVID-19 pandemic era doesn’t seem like a promising concept on paper, but Justin Buiter and his team at Railtown Brewing Co. are leveraging special circumstances to do exactly that.

GRAND RAPIDS — Founders Brewing Co. has temporarily laid off 89 employees as the bar, restaurant, entertainment and hospitality industries cope with recent health guidelines handed down by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

GRAND RAPIDS — Chicago-based Factorial Holdings plans to construct 10 new Burger King restaurants in Grand Rapids over the next five years.

GRAND RAPIDS — Black Calder Brewing Co. is launching its first beer on Nov. 27, or “The Blackest Friday,” as the new brewery’s owners are calling it.

Heading into 2021, Brewery Vivant has worked with its distributor to get three different six-pack placements into Meijer Inc. stores on a statewide basis. 

The Michigan Restaurant & Lodging Association and two hospitality businesses filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the head of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services in response to new business restrictions to stem the spread of COVID-19.

GRAND RAPIDS — Grand Valley State University’s Sustainable Agriculture Project (SAP) has partnered with the nonprofit New City Neighbors to expand the Grand Rapids organization’s educational farm.

GRAND RAPIDS — Two medical marijuana provisioning centers in Grand Rapids will soon be adding recreational sales.

BYRON CENTER — In his first quarterly earnings call with SpartanNash Co., newly appointed CEO Tony Sarsam began to outline his vision for the food distribution and grocery retail company.

Restaurant owners have had to get creative and at times take extreme cost-cutting measures to keep their doors open this year, indicating the COVID-19 pandemic’s long-term effects for the industry.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led many households to bear down in their homes over the last eight months, leading to an uptick in grocery store sales. In fact, many grocery stores struggled to keep shelves stocked with the panicked buying that took place in the pandemic’s early stages. Grand Rapids-based SpartanNash Co. — the fifth largest food distributor in the U.S. — was on the front lines of those efforts with its 155 corporate-owned retail stores and distribution business that delivers to 2,100 independent locations across the country. It’s also a leading distributor of grocery products to U.S. military commissaries. 

Jeff VanderWerff is one of the rare professionals whose day-to-day operations have remained virtually unchanged throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Restaurant owners are seeking clarification from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services on last week’s revised emergency order requiring bars and restaurants to gather names and contact information from patrons. 

GRAND RAPIDS — The operators of Max’s South Seas Hideaway — a downtown Grand Rapids tiki bar owned by former BarFly Ventures LLC President Mark Sellers III — have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

HOLLAND TOWNSHIP — An award-winning spirits brand backed by the DeVos family is relocating to West Michigan from Washington, D.C.

GRAND RAPIDS — BarFly Ventures LLC — the parent company of HopCat, Stella’s Lounge and Grand Rapids Brewing Co. — has sold its assets as part of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.

PENINSULA TOWNSHIP — A group of Northern Michigan wineries and a trade group representing them have filed a federal lawsuit against Peninsula Township alleging that their businesses are losing hundreds of thousands of dollars per year because of the municipality’s allegedly unconstitutional ordinances.

GRANDVILLE — An Oceana County restaurant that has made a name for itself over the last decade for its rotisserie chicken wings is expanding with a second location in Grandville.

A West Michigan food processing research center and incubator is among beneficiaries of federal grant funding to bolster small businesses in West and Southwest Michigan.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed a lawsuit alleging that a local egg producer created a hostile work environment for a former female employee and then retaliated against her when she filed a complaint about her treatment.

SPRING LAKE — Vander Mill LLC is closing its original Spring Lake facility to focus on its Grand Rapids hard cider production facility and restaurant in what co-founder Paul Vander Heide calls the latest in ongoing changes for the business.

ALTO — A key aspect of Industry 4.0 technology is finding a way to automate processes that are repetitive, dull, dirty or even dangerous.

Under the guidance of Executive Director Marty Gerencer, the West Michigan Food Processing Association incorporated as a 501(c)(6) in February with a multi-pronged approach to support the food industry across a five-county region.

GRAND RAPIDS — Despite the uncertainty that has accompanied 2020, Grand Rapids-based franchise operator Meritage Hospitality Group Inc. reported an increase in sales for both the third quarter and the nine months that ended Sept. 27.

 GRAND RAPIDS — Ann Arbor-based C3 Industries LLC is opening a cannabis dispensary in southeast Grand Rapids on Monday.

Dozens of Michigan farms and food processors have been awarded $15 million in COVID-19 relief grants to create safer work conditions for employees and protect the food industry as a whole, state officials announced Wednesday.

CASCADE TOWNSHIP — Hamburger Mary’s is set to open its first Michigan location later this month near Grand Rapids, bringing with it the karaoke, drag shows and drag queen bingo the restaurant franchise is known for.

Products that leave the La Colombe Coffee Roasters production facility in Muskegon will now reach farther across the U.S. after a recent distribution deal.

GRAND RAPIDS — The owners of That Early Bird Cafe and Little Bird restaurants — like countless other businesses — have taken stock of what works well during the pandemic, both to weather the short-term disruption as well as set themselves up for long-term success.