Lunchmeat processor Carl Buddig and Company has acquired the former Butterball plant in Montgomery, Illinois, with plans of reopening it this spring.
The company announced that it finalized the purchse of the building on January 19. The new facility will give Carl Buddig its fourth plant in Illinois and increase its Illinois workforce to more than 1,800 employees.
“Expanding our manufacturing footprint to relieve pressure from current facilities and add capacity to address growing production demands from our customers has been a No. 1 priority for the company,” Bob Buddig, CEO of Carl Buddig and Company, said in a press release. “When the Montgomery facility became available, we jumped on the opportunity immediately. The new plant enables the company to significantly expand production of existing products and new products to be developed in the future.”
The company, which is observing its 75th anniversary in 2018, is also based in Illinois. Its headquarters are located in Homewood.
Carl Buddig is hopeful it can draw from the workforce in the Montgomery area that already has skills related to meat and poultry processing.
“Since the Montgomery facility was previously used as meat processing plant before closing in July 2017, we believe there may be a number of trained and qualified workers living in the area,” stated Karen Noble, executive vice president of human resources for Carl Buddig and Company. “We encourage anyone interested in working at the new Montgomery location to apply.”
History of the Montgomery plant
The plant was previously operated by Butterball, which obtained the facility in its 2013 acquisition of Gusto Packing Co. While under Butterball’s ownership, the Montgomery plant processed primarily pork products, which was a departure from the norm for the country’s largest turkey processor.
When Butterball announced its intent to close the facility in 2017, Jay Jandrain, Butterball chief operating officer, said the “lack of vertical integration in the pork complex and the weakness in the raw material commodity markets” were the primary reasons behind the decision to cease operations there.
An estimated 600 people were employed at Butterball’s Montgomery plant.
