New parish facility can put you on the ‘road to riches’

Norco ‘incubator’ to provide gear and guidance to help you start or build your business

You can produce homemade recipes for market and build the profitable business you’ve always dreamed about at St. Charles Parish’s new “Food Production Incubator” – a facility that will open within months in Norco. Corey Faucheux, director of economic development and tourism for the parish, says the food incubator was created to help entrepreneurs from “mom and pop start-ups” to established small businesses create, market, and mass-produce their products for sale to grocery stores and other outlets.

That means your pecan pralines or “secret hot sauce” could be on the shelves of major stores with help from the incubator.

“I can’t give you an exact date, but this spring we are opening the incubator,” Faucheux told the Herald-Guide.

“The facility will have a federally approved, government-certified kitchen facility and anyone with a recipe can rent the facility by the hour, daily, weekly, or monthly to cook, market and mass produce their food products.”

Faucheux says he worked closely with Louisiana State University’s Agriculture Center to develop this project.

“Through the LSU Ag Center support, training and other services will be provided to our clients,” he continues.

“LSU’s Small Business Development Center and the food sciences department were instrumental in helping us get things started.”

Incubator services include shared space, shared equipment, management assistance, training and food technology support, food preparation and regulation compliance, packaging and warehousing, distribution, all in conjunction with LSU’s Agriculture Center.

“If someone has a praline recipe or special sauce they are making at home, they can rent the facility and begin the process to take it from the commercial kitchen to the store shelves,” Faucheux told the Herald-Guide.

Faucheux says that no decision has been made at the cost of renting the facility.

“We are still in the planning phase of this project, but we expect to have it ready by summer of this year,” Faucheux tells the Herald-Guide.

 

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