Excalibur Seasoning, a premier meat and seafood seasoning company, officially broke ground on a 14,000-square-foot research and development center and meat processing kitchen at its Pekin, Ill., headquarters on Oct. 14, 2025.

“The new R&D center is designed as a fully integrated innovation hub,” said Excalibur President Mike Shrier. “It will feature a greatly expanded core R&D lab and a comprehensive meat processing and sausage kitchen equipped with commercial-grade machinery. This allows our team to replicate the processing capabilities of our diverse customer base, from dry ingredients all the way through to finished, cooked products.

“It will fundamentally change how we serve our customers, giving us the capability to shorten our product development cycle considerably by handling revisions and final product validation entirely on-site." 

The expanded facility includes a dedicated presentation room with built-in video recording capabilities, allowing the team to tape content, host classes, and present new concepts to customers. The design also features a back patio and grilling area for social events and customer meetings. R&D and regulatory teams will work here to foster closer collaboration across departments. Five acres of adjacent land were purchased to create a unified "Excalibur Campus."

"This investment shows our employees and the great Pekin community that we are putting money back into the business and continuing to grow,” Shrier said. “It’s a positive affirmation for everyone here. As we continue to expand, this growth will inevitably lead to more job creation, increasing our impact as one of Pekin's largest private employers."

The R&D center is slated for completion by mid-summer 2026.

Source: Excalibur Seasoning