The new operation, which is expected to create 25-30 jobs, garnered a $150,000 grant from the Michigan Commission of Agriculture and Rural Development in July, as one of the first incentives in a pilot incentive program launched by the state agriculture department.

"There's literally hundreds of thousands of dollars a month leaving Michigan, going somewhere else," Aronson said. "Now we can bring this all in-state."

He owns 90 percent of Great Lakes; a silent partner owns the rest.

A 30,000-square-foot building on Trolley Industrial Drive near I-94 will house the HPP line. It was formerly a distribution site for Garden Fresh products, and Campbell Soup continued to operate from there for a time after it bought Garden Fresh.

Campbell vacated the building recently after constructing a new warehouse in Ferndale, leaving two "football-field-sized" walk-in coolers that are perfect for storing food going through the HPP process, Aronson said, and four loading docks.

The site has space for four HPP lines, but initial plans call for installation of a single line that would have capacity to process 45 million pounds of food per year.

When complete, the HPP line will be able to take small runs as well as large runs, given that it uses only cold water to process foods and won't need to go through costly cleanings in between product runs, Aronson said.

The process does change some some attributes of the food, he said. "What we noticed is it makes jalapenos hotter, so I had to put less in (salsa.) And it made garlic weaker. I had to put more garlic in."

The process can't be used for products in glass and doesn't work well for breads and breakfast sandwiches, Aronson said. Dips work great, but after they go through HPP, they may leach a little liquid around the edges.

"That's what I'll help them with. I'll tell them here's the food starch you want to use because it's all natural, and it's really attractive on your label. ... You don't want to add something with five ingredients. We can help them that way without having to experiment at home for a month or five months."

The process has helped Drought expand its distribution throughout the Midwest over the past eight months, said Jessie James, chief business development officer of Drought and one of the four sisters who founded the company six years ago.

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