The plant in Kansas City, which costs US$140 million, was opened to the media on Friday. It uses robotic systems to process meat from raw cuts to finished products packaged and ready for supermarket sales. According to executives, the new facility is twice as fast requiring half as many employees and uses 35% less energy compared with the traditional plant.

 

Sara Lee's new plant, which will account for about half its lunch-meat production in North America, should help to hold down retail prices that have been driven higher by rising commodity costs. Beef and pork prices have climbed sharply in the last year due to rising feed costs and increased export demand, among other factors.

 

Last quarter, the company's commodity costs for its North American business were up seven percentage points against on-year. The company has implemented price increases during the past 12 months of 4-8%, driven largely by the rise in commodity costs.