Farmland Foods Expands Denison, Iowa, Operations

Sep. 2–A pork processing plant in Denison, Iowa, is being expanded to add 219 jobs, more slaughter capacity and production lines for smoked sausage, sliced ham and hot dogs, officials said Wednesday.

The $81 million expansion of the Farmland Foods plant, which currently employs 1,500 people, should be completed in late summer of 2007, company officials said.

The plant will be able to slaughter more hogs, raising capacity by 1,150 hogs per day, from 9,200 to 10,350. Currently, the plant produces only smoked hams and bacon.

“Farmland Foods is our largest employer and a valued member of our business community,” said Ken Livingston, mayor of this town of about 7,000 residents. “We are very excited about the prospect of another 219 jobs in Denison.”

The expansion at Denison comes on the heels of a $19 million expansion of a cold storage and distribution facility at a Farmland hog processing plant in Crete, Neb. About 120 more jobs are expected in Crete from that expansion.

Tim Schellpeper, a vice president at Farmland Foods, said the expansions are a sign of added demand for the company’s products.

When Virginia-based Smithfield Foods, the nation’s leading pork company, bought Farmland Foods’ pork facilities two years ago, some officials in Nebraska and Iowa were concerned about what Smithfield would do.

Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, said he heard those concerns, but after talking with Smithfield officials he became convinced that they would remain strong in the Midwest.

“They did not over-promise and under-deliver, they under-promised and over-delivered,” King said.

C. Larry Pope, president and chief operating officer of Smithfield Foods, said the company has 3,884 employees in Iowa and had a payroll last year of $116 million.

“With our acquisition of Farmland Foods and strong internal growth, in just the last three years, we have added 1,787 employees and $54 million to our Iowa payroll,” Pope said.

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