A shuttered former pie manufacturing plant in Eustis, Neb., will produce Halal-certified beef bacon after McCook, Neb.-based Copperstone Foods moves in and ramps up operations to start next summer, according to local news.
The facility once housed The Village PieMaker, which grew from a local, one-woman business selling homemade pies along Interstate 80 to a company selling its pies nationwide after it was purchased by businessman Joe Ricketts, who moved production to Omaha in 2020.
Copperstone once operated out of the Eustis facility, producing dried beef snacks there, and plans to process up to 30,000 pounds of beef bacon per day. It will build a 2,500-square-foot expansion to add refrigerated storage space and employ about 18 full-time employees, the news story said.
Cooperstone obtained a $15 million grant from USDA’s Meat and Poultry Intermediary Lending Program; it will use $5 million of that to help finance the expansion and purchase robotics, smoking and slicing equipment. Copperstone will procure the beef plates it needs to create the beef bacon from Halal-certified processing plants, though a supplier had not yet been determined. The Eustis plant will brine, smoke, slice and package the beef bacon, then ship it to Chicago-based Crescent Foods for distribution.
