Sanderson Farms Inc. announced that sites located in Smith and Wood Counties, Texas, have been tentatively selected for construction of a new feed mill, hatchery, poultry processing plant and waste water treatment facility, subject to the contingencies discussed below. These facilities will comprise a state-of-the-art poultry complex with the capacity to process 1.25 million birds per week for retail chill pack customers. At full capacity, the complex will employ approximately 1,700 people, will require 80 contract growers, and will be equipped to process and sell approximately 375 million pounds of dressed poultry meat annually at full production.
Sanderson Farms expects to invest approximately $200 million in the new Texas complex and anticipates that associated contract growers will invest an additional $135 million in poultry production facilities. The company expects to begin construction of the facilities during summer 2017, with initial operations of the new complex to begin during the first fiscal quarter of 2019.