Hormel Foods Corporation, a global branded food company, opened its newest production facility, Papillion Foods, located in Papillion, Nebraska. According to company officials, the company will hire nearly 350 team members during the first year of its operations.

Papillion Foods is a 535,000-square-foot facility that Hormel Foods significantly renovated to become a state-of-the-art food processing facility that includes the latest sustainability processes, such as automated guided vehicles for product transport throughout the plant, automatic rack assists for lifting objects and LED lighting with motion sensors. The facility will make dry sausage products for the company.

"We are excited to be opening up this facility to not only help meet the demand for our branded sausage products, but also provide fantastic career opportunities in our community," said Ed Finnegan, Papillion Foods plant manager. "We've been able to hire a great team thus far and are looking to welcome even more to our family at Papillion Foods."

Announced in February, Hormel purchased the former Shopko distribution center for roughly $25 million with plans to invest another $60 million to convert the facility into a manufacturing plant.

Based in Austin, Minnesota, Hormel Foods Corporation is a global branded food company with over $9 billion in annual revenue across more than 80 countries worldwide. Its brands include SKIPPY, SPAM, Hormel Natural Choice, Black Label and more than 30 other beloved brands.