House of Raeford Farms will begin construction this summer on a new feed mill for its poultry complex in Arcadia, Louisiana. The feed mill, to be located in Simsboro, Louisiana, and Lincoln Parish, will be built at a cost of $40 million and be capable of producing 12,500 tons of feed weekly, double the capacity of the current mill.
The company will also make building modifications and add new equipment totaling over $7 million to the hatchery in Gibsland, Louisiana, and the processing plant in Arcadia, Louisiana. As a result, the complex will add more than 100 new jobs, and live production will contract for 86 new poultry houses over the next two years with a new construction impact to the northwest Louisiana community of $28 million.
“House of Raeford is committed to our operations in Louisiana as evidenced by these major capital expenditures and planned employment increases,” said Bob Johnson, CEO of the family-owned and operated company. “In keeping with the growth objectives of our company, our Louisiana complex is also the first of our locations to offer no antibiotics ever chicken products to our customers.”
Construction of the feed mill will take 18 months to two years to complete, but improvements to the hatchery and processing plant will be finished earlier. In addition to these capital upgrades, House of Raeford’s totally rebuilt Wallace, North Carolina, processing facility re-opened last year while the Greenville and Hemingway, South Carolina locations have recently undergone major equipment and facility improvements.
House of Raeford Farms, according to the WATTAgNet Top Poultry Companies Database, is the tenth largest chicken producer in the United States, providing ready-to-cook and further processed chicken products to the foodservice, retail, and export markets. The company is family-owned and operated, and based out of Rose Hill, North Carolina, with additional facilities in Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, and South Carolina.
