Butterball, the US turkey processor, is spending US$14m on expanding its operation in Huntsville, Arkansas.
A company spokesperson confirmed to just-food work has started on a new frozen storage facility at the site, which employs around 650 people.
The 40,000 sq ft expansion will see four new managers and about 12 operators added to the payroll.
The construction work was originally expected to be finished by early summer but it was weather-delayed and is now expected to be complete by mid-August.
Butterball, a venture between US pork processor Seaboard Corp. and meat processor Maxwell farms, announced in January it was expanding its plant in Raeford, North Carolina, which is 85 miles south of its head office in Garner.
Last summer it shut a facility in Montgomery, Illinois, which has recently been sold to meat supplier Carl Buddig & Co. Butterball blamed a “lack of vertical integration in the pork complex and the weakness in the raw material commodities market” for the plant’s closure.
