USA: Simmons Foods to expand facility in Arkansas

Simmons Foods has announced its plans to invest $100 million in the expansion of its prepared food facility in Arkansas.

The expansion will meet the growing demand for cooked products at the same time that supports the local economy.

The 65,000-square-foot expansion of the existing facility will add two automated production and packaging lines, creating 100 new jobs, including highly skilled positions to support robotics and automation processes.

“We’re excited to build on our success in the region. Our River Valley team is an important part of our company’s total operations. We have three production locations here in the River Valley as well as a Hiring Center and a Simmons Care Clinic dedicated to providing medical care with no added co-pays exclusively for our team members and their covered dependents,” Joel Sappenfield, president of Simmons Prepared Foods.

At the moment, Simmons has a workforce of 600 full-time people operating three production lines, producing approximately 110 million pounds of fully cooked chicken products annually. With the new expansion, the annual production capacity will be increased by approximately 100 million pounds.

Source: Simmons Foods