Provemex International Holdings, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tyson Foods, will invest $6.6 million to re-open a shuttered Tyson factory in Independence, Iowa, that was closed in 2006, according to the Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier. The company plans to hire more than 100 workers to produce a line of pet food products that it says will be made with "human food standard processing techniques." The Courier reports that the company expects the Independence factory to process more than 1.5 million pounds of raw materials from other Tyson Foods facilities, with production expected to begin in January 2010. The product line will initially utilize 40,000 square feet of production space, with planned expansion to 100,000 square feet. The state will provide incentives to Provemex that include a $400,000 forgivable loan.
