Rutter’s Farm Stores will invest more than $55 million this year to build 10 convenience stores and 11 car washes as part of the biggest one-year capital expenditure in the company’s history. The growth will add 350 new jobs, and more than $4.5 million in annual wages and benefits, to the area economy.
The expansion will extend the York, Pa. chain’s reach into Dauphin County, Pa. and into two other new Pennsylvania markets: Carlisle and Chambersburg. By the end of the year, Rutter’s will operate 58 convenience stores in York, Adams, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin and Lancaster counties in central Pennsylvania.
"We’re looking forward to building new stores at three existing locations and to adding seven new locations to the Rutter’s family," said Scott Hartman, president of Rutter’s Farm Stores. "Our customers ask us to provide the most up-to-date stores possible–bigger, brighter and more fast-food options. These new stores will be bigger (5,300 to 5,800 square feet), with new food and product offerings and new media and technologies, and they will incorporate our new ‘green’ initiatives to help save energy and improve the environment. Although the economy is slowing, we are trying to do our part to keep all our great construction-worker customers working. It’s going to be a busy, exciting year for all of us."
Family-owned and third generation-managed, York County-based Rutter’s Farm Stores ranked 10th on the Central Penn Business Journal’s 2007 list of the 50 fastest-growing public and private companies.
Rutter’s also today responded to Pennsylvania’s new milk labeling standards that will allow the chain to continue promoting the fact that its milk is produced without the use of artificial growth hormones-rBST.
"Our position has remained consistent throughout: We believe that consumers want more, not less, information about the food products they buy. We are secure in the knowledge that given this kind of information, consumers are perfectly capable of making their own decisions as to whether the use of artificial growth hormones in their milk production is something they care about," the company said in a statement to the media. "All along, Rutter’s has adhered to the department’s milk labeling standards. We’re glad that the new rules will allow us to continue to disclose information about what is–and what isn’t–used in milk production on our farms.
"In addition, we want to emphasize that Rutter’s Farm Stores will continue to sell Rutter’s milk at the state minimum price allowed by law as it has for decades."
