US EditionFrom Industry to Innovation: Smithfield Move Signals New Era for Downtown Sioux Falls
The new $1.3 billion plant will employ 3,200 workers and increase processing capacity beyond 20,000 hogs daily to improve efficiency and margins, Smithfield said.
- On Feb. 16, Virginia-based, Hong Kong-owned Smithfield Foods announced plans for a $1.3 billion processing facility on 200 acres in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, joined by Gov. Larry Rhoden and Mayor Paul TenHaken.
- CEO Shane Smith has pushed to resize the business and reduce commodity-price exposure, boosting efficiencies that investors have welcomed amid the company’s shares rising more than 12% this year.
- The existing downtown plant processes about 20,000 hogs daily and, subject to regulatory approvals, the new facility would employ 3,200 people and could be operational by the end of 2028.
- The move will free up about 120 acres near Falls Park for redevelopment, and Denny Sanford, philanthropist, is donating $50 million to transition the freed downtown land to community ownership.
- Smithfield's 2013 sale to WH Group for $4.7 billion means some GOP legislators argue foreign ownership raises national security concerns amid the Presidents' Day news cycle.
15 Articles
15 Articles
Chinese Smithfield to Build New Pork Plant at I-29/I-90 with State Subsidy
Corporate welfare is bad enough, but now the state of South Dakota is forking out cash to China. Chinese-owned Smithfield Foods has a problem: CEO Shane Smith says they “have to either make significant renovations to our 100-year-old Sioux Falls facility or build a new plant.” Smithfield responds to this necessity by choosing to move its Sioux Falls meatpacking operations from the old plant at the north side of downtown to Foundation Park at the…
World’s Largest Pork Producer Plans Billion-Dollar South Dakota Revamp
With US markets off for Presidents’ Day, a quiet news cycle let the world’s largest pork producer hog some attention. Virginia-based, Hong Kong-owned Smithfield Foods announced plans to build a $1.3 billion “state-of-the-art” processing facility in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Local officials billed it as a “once-in-a-generation opportunity,” though they have plenty of reasons to ham things up. Bringing Home the Bacon Founded in 1936 and named for…
History of John Morrell and Smithfield Foods
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) -- The announcement from the City of Sioux Falls and Smithfield Foods has us looking back on the 117-year history of the operation in downtown Sioux Falls. John Morrell & Company made its home in downtown Sioux Falls in 1909, purchasing a failed meatpacking plant north of the Queen Bee Mill. [...]
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