ST. CLOUD, Minn. -- St. Cloud-based GNP Co. has announced it has began an expansion that would make it's Cold Spring plant one of the most automated meat processing plants in North America, the company announced Monday.
The company produces the Gold'n Plump and Just Bare brand labels of chicken.
A $35 million initial expansion, which began earlier in March, will include a building addition and the installation of new equipment to add capacity to the Cold Spring processing plant as well as its hatchery operations, a news release from the company said.
The work in Cold Spring involves eight new docks, a new entrance at the distribution center and additional cooler storage space. Also involved in the first phase is an expanded truck shop in St. Cloud, the purchase of a building in nearby Sauk Rapids for future hatchery growth and development of a plan for adding up to 72 new barns in the St .Cloud area to provide the additional birds needed for production growth.
"This expansion will increase GNP Company's ability to satisfy the expected increase in customer and consumer demand for our products and brands, while advancing our safety processes by reducing physical job demands and improving ergonomics," said company president Steve Jurek, who also said the company has restructured its executive leadership team.
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The Cold Spring expansion will not significantly increase the number of jobs at Cold Spring, Jurek said, but production will increase through new technology and equipment to automate processes.
Jurek did say the company is seeking new workers at all of its locations.
The second phase of the expansion is still in the planning stages, but may include another building addition and additional equipment and technology to further automate processing.
If both phases are complete, annual plant production will increase by an estimated 33 percent, processing about 88 million more pounds of chicken per year.
GNP, which was purchased by the nation's largest family-owned pork producer -- Maschhoff Family Foods -- in 2013, says it has almost 1,700 employees and 350 family farm partners in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Company sales grew to about $452 million last year, an increase of 13 percent over 2013.
Just Bare is the company's brand of certified organic chicken.
