Central Maine Meats of Gardiner, Maine, is looking to dramatically expand its operations after receiving a $2.6 million loan guarantee package from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development. The company will be able to bring its commercial smoker online as early as May and add a value-added cutting floor. In a year, the company’s employment is expected to reach about 50, reports centralmaine.com.

Central Maine Meats has been working to close deals to supply meat to large-scale food distributors. The loan will help the company expand its operations to service new customers, as well as add operations like sheep hide tanning.

The USDA-inspected meat processing facility opened its Brunswick Avenue facility in February 2015 and opened a USDA poultry slaughterhouse operated by Common Wealth Poultry Co., in the Libby Hill Business Park in Gardiner the following month. Its red meat processing facility opened in December and the flash freeze facility opened in January.

Source: www.centralmaine.com