Sanderson Farms' expansion projects in Palestine, Texas, and St. Pauls, North Carolina, are progressing well, the company’s chief executive said.
Joe F. Sanderson, CEO of Sanderson Farms, gave updates on both complexes during a quarterly earnings call on February 25.
Sanderson Farms complex in Palestine, Texas
Sanderson said that its big bone deboning complex, in Palestine, Texas, which opened February 9, 2015, will be adding a second shift in April.
He added that he expects the plant to reach full production in the company’s fourth fiscal quarter of 2016, a three-month period that concludes at the end of October.
Sanderson Farms complex in St. Pauls, North Carolina
Sanderson also gave an update on the poultry complex being built in St. Pauls, North Carolina. He said construction is progressing well and the company hopes to open the plant during the first quarter of fiscal year 2017, which will run from November 2016 through January 2017.
At full capacity, the plant will have the ability to process 1.25 million birds per week for the big bird deboning market. It is expected to employ as many as 1,100 people.
According to the WATTAgNet Top Poultry Companies database, Sanderson Farms, headquartered in Laurel, Mississippi, produced 58.8 million pounds of ready-to-cook poultry on a weekly basis in 2014.
