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Area Development - Site Selection, Facility Planning and Workforce Development

Simply Essentials Invests In Excess Of $30 Million In Charles City, Iowa, Processing Plant

06/06/2016
Simply Essentials recently purchased the Cedar River Poultry chicken processing plant in Charles City, Iowa. The company plans to invest more than $30 million to reopen the manufacturing plant.

According to company officials, once open this fall, the plant will be a state-of-the-art, innovative chicken processing plant producing high-quality, premium chicken products that meet the demands of the health focused consumer.

The plant is being designed with leading edge Air Chilled processing technology that results in superior flavor, a company spokesperson said. Air Chilling is an innovative process in the US that uses cold air to individually chill the chicken throughout the process instead of conventional processing that Chills the birds in a common bath of chlorine water. Air Chilled processing locks in flavor, not water, which produces better tasting protein. The end result is a protein that is rich, juicy, safer and better tasting and better for you.

“Simply Essentials is building a facility with unparalleled levels of technology, efficiency, sustainability, safety and animal welfare. This will result in a better tasting, healthier end product for sure, but the plant is being designed to be safer for plant workers and will require far fewer natural resources to run the plant because of its unique processing design,” said Dennis Krause, CEO of Simply Essentials. “Our Charles City facility will be the industry leader for chicken produced to meet consumer desires for a healthier raised and better tasting product. We are excited about this product expansion and we intend to be a solid corporate citizen to the city of Charles City and the surrounding communities.”

“Charles City welcomes Simply Essentials, the company has purchased the local poultry plant and will be investing over $30 million and creating at a minimum, over 250 new jobs,” said Mayor Jim Erb, Charles City. “They are committed to being good partners in the community by meeting all operational and environmental standards and working with local suppliers.” To put some perspective on how the plant will positively impact the community, it will require over 200,000 tons of grain annually from local farmers.

Simply Essentials has partnered with Prairie’s Best as their local grower partner. Prairie’s Best has extensive knowledge of local chicken producers throughout the region and will be recruiting local partners to become contract growers. “This is absolutely great news for the Iowa farmers,” said George Peichel, CEO. “Making this kind of commitment to the community really means a lot and brings chicken processing in Iowa to a whole new level of sophistication as we build an extensive grower network to support Simply Essentials’ plant to produce healthier, antibiotic free, humanely raised chicken that tastes great.”

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