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West Liberty Foods, Vertical Cold Storage Partner On New South Kansas City Complex

Jan. 25, 2023

West Liberty Foods is partnering with Vertical Cold Storage to construct a 327,000-square-foot combined food processing and cold storage complex south of Kansas City, Kan.

Andy Hanacek

Meat and poultry processor West Liberty Foods (WLF) is partnering with Vertical Cold Storage to announce plans to construct a 327,000-square-foot combined food processing and cold storage complex in the Interstate 49 Industrial Center south of Kansas City, Kan.

Although an official timetable for the project has yet to be revealed, the facility is expected to cost approximately $200 million and bring nearly 600 new jobs to the area, according to the Kansas City Area Development Council. The food processing operation is expected to focus on WLF’s grab-and-go sandwich production, and it will be directly connected to the cold storage facility on site.

Vertical Cold Storage, headquartered in Dakota Dunes, S.D., has done business with WLF in the past, having acquired WLF’s Liberty Cold Storage property in Bolingbrook, Ill., in 2021, a little more than five years after WLF constructed the facility.

About the Author

Andy Hanacek | Senior Editor

Andy Hanacek has covered meat, poultry, bakery and snack foods as a B2B editor for nearly 20 years, and has toured hundreds of processing plants and food companies, sharing stories of innovation and technological advancement throughout the food supply chain. In 2018, he won a Folio:Eddie Award for his unique "From the Editor's Desk" video blogs, and he has brought home additional awards from Folio and ASBPE over the years. In addition, Hanacek led the Meat Industry Hall of Fame for several years and was vice president of communications for We R Food Safety, a food safety software and consulting company.