It was a long, cold road to North Dakota from Texas for a local processing plant worker.

But the end result, he says:"Muy bien."

Saul Garcia started looking for a job in Texas, where unemployment rates in some places jumped above 18 percent. But there were no jobs, no work, no money for him and his young family.

So he left his young wife and baby, and set out to go north, where he'd heard the job climate was better. He ended up in Wisconsin with friends, working long hours for little money, he said. He could barely send enough money back to his family, and he couldn't afford to bring them there to be with him.

But then, a little less than a year ago, he heard of a "new company"in North Dakota, and, although he'd never been there, he headed west in search of a stable job, more money and maybe a new life.

"Ihad to risk it, so I didn't end up with nothing,"he said, speaking through his wife over speaker phone, who translated.

And so he did, risking not knowing anyone, not knowing the company or the state; he moved to North Dakota and began working in production for Mandan's own Cloverdale Foods.

Sometimes people find work in the strangest places. And sometimes, companies find workers where they'd never thought to look before.

Garcia heard about this "new company" as a result of aggressive efforts by Cloverdale to recruit outside of the state, and to target populations that may not necessarily think of North Dakota when looking for jobs, said Darlene Reinarts, vice president of human resources.

"The end of 2005 is when we strongly started looking at our whole recruiting efforts,"Reinarts said.

They started looking out of state and out of the country, in places where either unemployment was high or where there was an influx of workers with experience in the entry-level positions Cloverdale needed to fill. So far, the company has been able to find and relocate eight workers, including four families.

"You talk about making an economic impact," Reinarts said. "They're going to pay rent, buy groceries, shop. We're helping the economy in the city."

Reinarts' first stop for recruiting was Nebraska, where two processing plants had closed within a year. After that, Minnesota, she said.

And, after finding Garcia, or, more appropriately, after Garcia found Cloverdale, Reinarts realized there was an untapped worker market in Texas.

The company is recruiting as protection against shortages in the future, in reaction to the state's tight unemployment rate, she said. And the company's not just recruiting; its strategy involves intensive retention practices.

Garcia, for example, received help with rent and even bus tickets up to Bismarck, he said.

"They worry about how you are, where you're staying, if you're eating,"he said.

When his wife decided to come up to the state, after quite a lot of cajoling, Reinarts said, the company helped with her relocation, too. And when the couple finally decided to bring their baby girl up, Reinarts flew down to Texas at the same time to start recruiting more workers who might be inspired by their story.

The worker shortage in the state and in the city is no secret. Unemployment rates for the state continue to hover around 2.5 percent, the sixth lowest in the nation. Bismarck's is slightly higher, around 2.8 percent, but Reinarts said that taking out those who are not able to work or don't want to work cuts that percentage in half.

With recent history showing North Dakota's unemployment remaining relatively low, Reinarts said the money invested in retaining workers should cut away from money invested to constantly recruit and train new ones.

To relocate a single worker, for example, normally runs about $2,000, Reinarts said. For a family, that runs about $3,000 to $3,500. But that doesn't compare to retraining and refinding new workers.

"We're offering people full-time positions. It's not temp or seasonal,"she said. "We want them to stay, we want this to be their home."

Cloverdale always has been at the forefront in recruiting diverse work forces, said Dan Schumacher, with Bismarck's Job Service North Dakota.

Job Service has been keeping a close eye on the Cloverdale recruiting strategy, he said, adding that it could work well for other industries experiencing a worker slump.

"I think if the business is sure they're going to experience long-term growth, and are in need of the skills that these folks can bring, it's a sound investment,"Schumacher said. "The only drawback I could see is if they were to do this, and then for some reason or the other, have to lay them off. I think that would set a bad precedent for North Dakota."

But because Cloverdale continues to grow and expand, Reinarts said she's still looking to add about 35 to 40 workers this year. The company continues to recruit within the city, but she said she feels that work force is tapped.

Her next stop? She won't say. She knows her strategy is successful, and she doesn't want to tip off competitors about where to find the newest round of workers.

While she plans her next trip, she's also working on convincing several families she met in Texas to ignore the cold, which seems to be their biggest concern, and take the leap to North Dakota.

"This is a strategy. We're working with a strategy here. I'm kind of making up the rules as I go," she said. "Every time that I do one of these, Ilearn something new to do better the next time I go. There's a lot of time and money that goes into it, and it also isn't something that's going to happen overnight. Not when you're talking about relocating."

(Reach reporter Crystal R. Reid at 250-8261 or at crystal.reid@;bismarcktribune.com.)