Tyson Foods, Inc. is expanding its case-ready meats business by repurposing plant capacity in South Carolina. The now-idle facility will reopen in Columbia as a meat-cutting facility that will produce retail ready, portioned packages of sliced, fresh beef and pork, as well as ground beef, for grocery and club stores in the eastern U.S.
“We’re pleased to bring operations back to Columbia and are very grateful for the strong state and local support we’ve received for this project,” said Nate Hodne, senior vice president and general manager of the Portioned Protein Innovations team for Tyson Fresh Meats, the beef and pork subsidiary of Tyson Foods. “Once operational, this new facility will help us meet growing demand from our retail customers with high quality, pre-cut, pre-packaged fresh beef and pork.”
Initially Tyson will invest approximately $42 million to transform the facility into a meat portioning and packaging operation that is currently expected to begin production in May 2021. Over the next three to five years the company plans to invest in additional improvements and production equipment at the facility with a total investment estimated at $55 million. The new operation will employ 330 people, more than double the number of team members who worked at the facility when it closed in August 2020.
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Image: Tyson Foods, Inc.