Pasco Commissioners Recognize Bauducco's $233 Million Zephyrhills Plant

The Pasco County Board of County Commissioners voted unanimously on Sept. 10 to formally recognize Bauducco Foods for opening its new manufacturing facility at the Zephyrhills Airport Industrial Park, a project the county has pegged at roughly $233 million in capital investment and up to 600 jobs once fully built out.

County meeting records list the company as "Balduco Foods Inc," with the packet also referencing spellings like "Boudouco" and "Baduco." It's the same Brazilian baking company known nationally for its panettone and wafer cookies, and locally for the sprawling campus rising off the airport industrial corridor east of town.

A company representative accepted the resolution and thanked commissioners for the partnership, saying the company was excited about what it could build in Pasco County in the years ahead.

What's actually on the ground

The Zephyrhills campus sits on land the county and the Pasco Economic Development Council have described as somewhere between 72 and 85 acres, with a planned building of roughly 403,000 square feet. Construction is happening in three phases. Phase one, which came online this summer, brought about 120 of the eventual 600 jobs.

Bauducco broke ground on the site in March 2025 after evaluating more than 160 potential locations nationwide, according to the project's development advisor. The company settled on Zephyrhills for its position between Tampa and Orlando and its access to road and CSX rail lines running through the industrial park.

A hiring fair held at the site in April drew a large turnout of job seekers, and openings have ranged from machine operators and maintenance technicians to quality control and logistics staff, reflecting the mix of production and distribution work planned for the plant. WorkforceCONNECT Pasco has been posting updates on job openings and training programs tied to the facility as later phases come online.

Same meeting, a cleanup milestone

Commissioners used the same Sept. 10 session to adopt a separate resolution declaring Sept. 19, 2026, as Keep Pasco Beautiful Cleanup Day. The board highlighted recent volunteer totals: 1,170 volunteers worked 52 sites across the county, hauling in 51,320 pounds of trash and logging 3,499 volunteer hours. Representatives from Seaworthy Collective and Water Warrior Alliance described upcoming coastal-resiliency programs and volunteer opportunities tied to the cleanup effort.

The county has not said when Bauducco's second construction phase is expected to begin or how many additional positions it will bring online. For now, hiring is expected to keep pace with production lines as they come online, with local career centers steering applicants toward openings as they're posted.

For more on this and other local stories, visit the Zephyrhills Community Website, or join the conversation in our Community Forum. You can also read more business development stories and Pasco County government coverage as this project moves through its next phases.

Header photo: United States Geological Survey (USGS) / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)