Butterball’s calculated bet that bringing all its production in-house would spur growth and innovation in its product lines has paid off handsomely. Plant expansions and the acquisition of two large processing facilities will allow the processor to multiply its jackpot.
It has been a busy couple of years, but the gamble that Butterball LLC has taken to modify its operational approach appears to have paid off, spurred along by several headline-making acquisitions in recent years.
Butterball has made sizeable investments into the Raeford plant beyond the initial purchase, feeding into its goal to become more focused on adding value to its commodity product lines.
In mid-November, Andy Hanacek, editor-in-chief, visited Raeford, N.C., in order to attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony and get an exclusive tour of the new Butterball further-processing plant there (which was also still under construction at presstime).
Foster Farms kicked off the holiday season with a donation of 4,000 turkeys – or 64,000 pounds – to six food banks in California, Oregon and Washington.
At the ribbon cutting ceremony for Butterball’s seventh facility, complex manager Frank Koekkoek discusses the Raeford, N.C. community support and how this facility will help increase Butterball’s production.
At the ribbon cutting ceremony for Butterball’s seventh facility, Mike Bliss, VP of Operations for Butterball, discussed how aggressive the startup schedule was for the Raeford facility and how Butterball is on track to employ nearly 500 people there by the end of 2016.
At the ribbon cutting ceremony for Butterball’s seventh facility, Butterball’s COO Joe Nalley discussed the extra $25 million investment the company put into the Raeford facility, potential future plans that would bring more jobs to the community and company involvement in community service.