Amick Farms, a poultry-processing subsidiary of OSI Group, will invest $74.5 million to expand operations at its Laurel, Miss., chicken plant, according to an announcement from the Mississippi Development Authority. The project, once finished, will create about 190 jobs, the group noted.
The company said the expansion would elevate capacity at the plant from 800,000 birds per week to about 1.1 million over the next three years, but square footage of the addition was not available at the time this was written. According to another news report, Jones County Economic Development Authority president and CEO Ross Tucker said all the plans are in place for the expansion, that he believes the company could break ground in spring or summer and build the addition in 12 to 18 months.
The Laurel plant was acquired from Wayne Farms in 2021, as Wayne and Sanderson Farms were working to meet conditions to allow the two to merge into what became Wayne-Sanderson Farms today. Amick Farms, which is headquartered in Batesburg, S.C., was acquired by OSI Group in 2006.
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.