The new Michael Foods 150,000 square-foot egg processing and distribution facility in Norwalk, Iowa, is on schedule to open in October, Michael Foods’ parent company, Post Holdings, announced.
The company first announced plans for the facility in February 2018. When the announcement was made, Post Holdings said the plant will process eggs and pre-cooked egg products, and that construction on the facility would begin that summer.
When completed, the new egg facility is expected to initially create between 100 and 150 new jobs, with those jobs ranging from entry-level positions to skilled positions in management, operations, finance and production.
“We are delighted that the internal growth at Michael Foods supports this expansion,” Rob Vitale, president and chief executive officer of Post Holdings, said at the time. “We believe it will further enhance our position as the nation’s leader in valued added egg products.”
In a press release in which Post Holdings announced its financial results for the third quarter of its 2019 fiscal year, the company highlighted its capital expenditures for 2019, which amounted to between $300 million and $310 million. Of that amount, about $80 million was related to the Norwalk egg facility.
Conversion to cage-free operation in Nebraska
Also related to the Michael Foods subsidiary was approximately $30 million in capital expenditures related to the previously announced cage-free housing conversion at the Bloomfield, Nebraska facility.
In 2016, the company announced that it would replace 32 layer barns with 12 cage-free houses at the Bloomfield farm.
Michael Foods Inc. is a leading food processor and distributor with business in egg products as well as refrigerated grocery and potato products. The company is the largest supplier of processed eggs in the world, according to the WATTAgNet Top Poultry Companies Database. As of December 31, 2018, its layer flock included 13.29 million birds.
