Smithfield Foods Expanding Its Operations In North Carolina With 250 New Jobs

Posted by Gaby Wallace on December 24th, 2018

Smithfield Foods was founded in 1936 and is a meat-processing company in Smithfield, Virginia. The company owns more than 500 farms throughout the United States and has contracts with another 2,000 independent farms. Their reach expands outside the United States as well, having facilities in Poland, Germany, Mexico, Romania, and the UK.

Smithfield Foodsmade headlines recently after they announced that they opened the doors to a new 500,000 square food distribution center in Tar Heel, North Carolina. The company invested over 0 million in the facility and in its blast cell cold storage capabilities. Smithfield Foods' President and Chief Executive Officer, Kenneth M. Sullivan stated that the company is experiencing a time of growth, and the new facility will help them continue to optimize their footprint. He also pointed out that over 10,000 Smithfield family members are already calling North Caroline their home, which makes the company proud of their investment as it will create even more jobs.

The leadership team behind Smithfield attended the opening ceremonies at the new distribution center, which already began making shipments and is expected to be fully operational by the January of 2019. Commissioner Steve Troxler of the North Carolina Department of Agriculture & Consumer Affairs applauded Smithfield for their support of the state's agriculture, noting that with this new distribution center, the company will strengthen the role that farmers in North Carolina play when it comes to feeding the country and the world.

State Senator, Bill Rabon was also at the opening celebration and noted that this new investment in the facility is another example of the role that Smithfield Foods plays as an economic driver for North Carolina. He also stated that besides providing thousands of jobs, the company and its employees are regularly supporting charitable causes in order to improve the lives of the people in North Carolina. He believes that the company continues to be a great partner to the state.

The new distribution center features almost 50,000 pallet positions and it also has the annual capacity of over 1 billion lbs. It's responsible for creating 250 new jobs, and will also cut transportation cost, improve delivery times, and will optimize the transportation and distribution network in order to lower fuel usage. Its location is adjacent to one of the company's pork processing facilities, which is also the largest pork plant in the world, being responsible for the production of fresh pork products for customers in the country and around the world. The 250 new employees will join the over 5,000 current employees that Smithfield's Tar Heel facility has. The facility is designed to strengthen Smithfield Foods' supply chain in order to better serve its customers.

The company's senior vice-president of supply chain, Dennis Organ declared that the new facility exemplifies the company's commitment to continuously improve its operations. He also noted that, while providing best-in-class customer services, Smithfield Foods is also reducing the distance for products travel, which in turn shrinks its carbon footprint and positions the company to achieve its long-term sustainability goals.