Company Overview of J. R. Simplot Company

Honeywell Resins & Chemicals L.L.C. announced it has signed an agreement with the J. R. Simplot Company to build a facility that will produce Honeywell's Sulf-N 26, a highly-effective fertilizer with all the agronomic benefits of traditional nitrate-based fertilizers, but with significantly lower explosive potential. Sulf-N 26 is a new, dry granular ammonium sulfate nitrate (ASN) fertilizer made from a patented Honeywell process that chemically fuses ammonium sulfate and ammonium nitrate to produce an entirely new and highly stable molecule, a 26-0-0 14S fertilizer. Independent agronomic tests on crops and plants -- ranging from grass to cabbage and tomatoes to strawberry and oranges -- found the new fertilizer to be safe and effective for agricultural use compared with traditional nitrate-based fertilizers. Sulf-N 26 is compatible with other fertilizers in prescription blends and safe to transport, handle and store. Sulf-N 26 was independently tested, with guidance from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and demonstrated significantly less or, in some cases, no explosive power, when compared to traditional nitrate-based fertilizers. It has been granted SAFETY Act (Support Anti-terrorism by Fostering Effective Technologies) Designation from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The SAFETY Act was created to provide incentives, including liability protections, for the development and deployment of anti-terrorism technologies that can help mitigate security threats. Under the terms of the agreement, Honeywell will engineer, construct and own a modular manufacturing facility at Simplot's Lathrop, Calif. production plant. Simplot will operate the facility and have exclusive rights to market and sell the fertilizer in the Western U.S., Western Canada and Northern Mexico.

J. R. Simplot Company announced that the company is planning to build a potato processing plant in Caldwell, Idaho, with site preparation anticipated to begin next May and start-up expected by spring of 2014. The 380,000 -square-foot plant, which will be built on the site of the company's original processing plant in Caldwell, will help Simplot remain competitive in the food industry while providing significant environmental benefits. The new plant will replace the company's existing potato processing plant in Caldwell, Idaho, with additional closures in the next 2 to 3 years of facilities at Aberdeen and Nampa, Idaho, resulting in the loss of just under 800 jobs.

J. R. Simplot Company announced that it will lay off at least 800 and as many as 1,000 Idaho workers over the next three years as it closes three aging potato-processing plants and builds a new one. The company said its new Caldwell plant, which should be completed by 2014, will employ about 250 people. As many as 200 of those employees could come from the existing plants. The company will replace a plant in Caldwell and close plants in Nampa and Aberdeen over the next two to three years. Those three plants currently employ 1,000 people.