In November 2023, Ogden City welcomed Ya YA Foods to the city’s business community. Ya YA Foods, a Canadian based company, announced it would bringing more than 300 new jobs to Ogden, Utah, over the next ten years. The company is bringing new jobs to Ogden at a quicker pace than initially anticipated, thanks in part to the qualities of Utah’s workforce.

Ogden City’s Engineering Division and Economic Development Division has also been collaborating with Ya YA Foods on utility line upgrades that will greatly improve the city’s residential and business infrastructure.

We caught up with Ya YA Foods president Yahya Abbas to learn more about the company’s experience opening its first U.S. operations in Utah.

When your company decided upon expanding, what factors led you to Utah?

Most of our operations are in Toronto, and Utah is our first site in the U.S. We looked at Arizona and Texas and Utah. Because we wanted to have a western U.S. location, Utah was the most reasonable and sensible place for us to expand. Then came the opportunity to partner with Oatly at their Ogden City location. That’s how it all came together.

Our agreement with Oatley has us assuming the production of their finished products. It’s a long-term agreement, and it gives us an anchor customer for the Ogden site. This will allow us to expand on the site and serve other customers, too. ‍

What prompted the decision to expand?

It was customer driven. We have the same customer base in Canada and the U.S.: long-established clients who are expanding and who need a trusted production partner in the western United States.  Some of them are multi-national corporations, and one has done business with us for more than 34 years. The newest client has done business with us for eight years.

How would you categorize the jobs you are bringing to Utah?

We employ a lot of engineers and technicians – highly-paid, skilled labor. In our business, we focus on automation, so we need the talent. If I’m not mistaken, we pay very well for that talent in this market.

We relocated only five people from Toronto. They bring expertise, and they train the rest of the people in the plant. Our focus is hiring in Utah. We want to prepare Utah employees to be leaders, to scale up the business. So far, it’s working very well.

How’s the hiring going?

At the beginning, this expansion was projected to be 100 jobs in the near term. Right now, we’re at 150 jobs. By the end of this year, we’ll add another 67. In the first six months of 2025, we should add another 100 jobs. I think this site will eventually reach 400 employees.

Ogden City has given us many leads for finding talent, such as the university and the local community college. It’s interesting that through the job fairs and other events, we’ve actually seen people from other states coming to Utah looking to work for us. Idaho, California, Texas, Arizona… Maybe in all, 14 of these out-of-state people have been hired, but that’s significant for us. Because of our focus on technology in the manufacturing process and our pay scales, we’re getting attraction. Plus living in Northern Utah has lower costs than other parts of the country.

Northern Utah is a region known for the strength of its manufacturing sector. What’s been your impression so far?

I believe that about Northern Utah, yes. We are very impressed with the workforce in Utah. For one thing, when we ask employees to do something a specific way, a lot of repetition is not needed. We tell them once, and it happens. They get it.

The other thing is they value their jobs. They are loyal to the employer if the employer is loyal to them. I hadn’t expected that, and it was a nice surprise.

About Ya YA Foods

Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Toronto, Ya YA Foods specializes in end-to-end packaging solutions for multinational beverage and liquid food companies across North America. The company has expertise in producing a broad range of aseptic products, including plant-based milk for companies such as Oatly, high-protein beverages, juices, broths, sports drinks, dairy-based drinks, and more.

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It was big news in February 2023 – Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) selected Utah for its next 300-mm semiconductor wafer fabrication plant. Building upon their existing presence, the new facility is set to expand their operations, adding extra capacity and will bring up to 800 new high-tech jobs and $11 billion in capital investment to Lehi, Utah, during the next 20 years.

This year, Area Development Magazine recognized the expansion as a “Project of the Year” in its annual Gold and Silver Shovel awards. Utah was also recognized with a Silver Shovel – making this 14 out of the last 17 years that Utah’s economic development efforts have been recognized by Area Development.

Area Development’s annual Shovel Awards recognize state economic development agencies that drive significant job creation through innovative policies, infrastructure improvements, and processes that attract new employers and investments in new and expanded facilities. The awards are presented annually to states that have achieved significant success in terms of job creation and economic impact.

The seven projects recognized by Area Development were nominated by EDCUtah for their notable impact on Utah’s economic prosperity.

Here’s the writeup from Area Development Magazine:

“Silver Shovel winner Utah had a big year in terms of investments, tallying some $12 billion in promises from a variety of big projects. The vast majority of that total involves one investment in Lehi, a Project of the Year from Texas Instruments. The biggest investment (resulting from a corporate recruitment project) in Utah history, it’s a semiconductor wafer fabrication plant that’ll connect to an existing Texas Instruments fab—the two fabs together will be able to make tens of millions of chips a day.

It’s hard to measure up to an $11 billion project like that, but Utah has a healthy list of other growth to be proud of. Lakeshore Learning picked Garland for a massive distribution facility to help get the company’s education materials to kids and teachers. Procter & Gamble is expanding its Box Elder facility that makes products in the company’s paper, baby care and feminine care business lines. Delta Airlines picked its Salt Lake City hub for a pilot training facility. And a number of food companies are locating or expanding in Utah, such as C&J Specialties, Utah Flour Mill and Schreiber Foods, which makes a variety of cheese products and celebrated its 50th anniversary a couple years ago by baking a Guinness World Record-winning two-ton batch of macaroni and cheese.”

Learn more about EDCUtah’s business expansion and relocation services.

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For additional information or to schedule an interview, please contact us.