December 21, 2006

BPI to expand beef production in South Sioux City
 

US-based Beef Products Inc, a little-known company that provides meat for most of the hamburgers served in the US has announced its expansion plans in South Sioux City, Nebraska, US.

About 300 more jobs would be created in the region as a result of expansion, according to local officials. The company intends to spend some US$ 400 million in this regard.

Governor Dave Heineman made the announcement Tuesday, Dec 19.

One of the reasons, BPI owner Eldon Roth cited for expanding in South Sioux City was partly because the company's most innovative processing plant was in South Sioux City.

The company's four-phase expansion would begin with a US$ 20-million cooked meats and pizza-topping initiative intended to open new markets.

The second phase would include construction of a facility to house utilities. The next phase, still being developed, would be construction of a new production plant for ground beef and new products.

Phase four will be another facility for new equipments to improve the quality of beef products, as well as safety and health technologies

This phase, according to Roth would allow BPI to begin to process other under-utilised cuts of lean beef.

BPI purchases beef trimmings from major slaughtering plants and processes them into frozen lean beef, which is then marketed to hamburger processing companies.