The company behind a manufacturing expansion project incentivized last week has been unveiled.

The Gaston County Economic Development Commission confirmed yesterday to the Charlotte Business Journal that DePalo Foods is investing $6.9 million to expand its Belmont operations. The project, which calls for the creation of 40 jobs over the next two years, was approved for Gaston County incentives last week under the code name Project Deli.

The project calls for the expansion of DePalo's existing Belmont facility by 12,500 square feet, county documents state. The company has been operating in Gaston County since 2008 and makes Italian food products such as pizza dough, stromboli and calzones, according to its LinkedIn page.

The expansion is being done "to accommodate additional research & development, warehousing, and cafeteria space," according to county documents.

The listed address for DePalo's facility is on The Oaks Parkway, which is less than 2 miles from Belmont Abbey College and Exit 26 of Interstate 85.

The Gaston County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously on March 28 to approve a level-one incentive grant for the project. The board also authorized the county to enter into an economic development agreement with the company behind Project Deli.

The new manufacturing investment adds to a pipeline of projects in that sector to land in Gaston County recently, and gives the county a win on its eastern side.

Many of the county's recent manufacturing announcements have taken place at at Apple Creek Corporate Center, the large industrial park between Gastonia and Dallas. Since breaking ground in 2020, half of the park's 10 industrial sites have been purchased by manufacturers for new facilities and several of those projects were announced in the last year.