Gold Kist wraps up poultry plant expansion
Sep 6, 2006 9:40 AM, from staff and wire reports
Gold Kist Inc will mark the official opening of a $30 million expansion of its poultry processing plant in Guntersville AL with a ribbon-cutting celebration Sept 26, 2006, featuring Alabama Gov Bob Riley as keynote speaker.
The 80,000-square-foot expansion project will add about 200 jobs to the site, bringing the total number of employees there to 1,450. Around 200 local family farmers supply chickens processed at the Guntersville plant.
The expansion provides space for new packaging equipment for production of the Gold Kist Fridge-to-Freezer Pak, introduced in 2005 in Costco stores. This package divides fresh chicken parts into small individual vacuum-sealed pockets that can be separated so unused portions can be refrigerated or frozen without extra handling or rewrapping.
In addition, the expansion includes administrative office space, employee welfare and training facilities, and two more coolers that will store approximately 650,000 pounds of product.
