June 26, 2006
Triumph Foods receives US$16 million in state grants for new plant
Triumph Foods has announced it received almost US$16 million from the state of Illinois after it made a decision to locate its 620,000 square foot pork processing plant there.
Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich announced the awarding of almost US$16 million in Opportunity Returns grants for the US$135 million Triumph Foods pork-processing plant to be built near East Moline, Illinois.
The Opportunity Returns programme is the state's economic development strategy to revive the economy in northwest Illinois. The Triumph Foods project would create an estimated 350 new jobs by 2009 and a total of 1,000 new jobs by 2010.
The Triumph plant is the largest regional economic development project in many years and is a strong indicator of the economic progress the state has made, Blagojevich said.
Triumph is investing US$135 million to build the 620,000 square foot plant, with construction expected to begin early next year.
Besides being exclusively a pork-processing facility, with no hog confinement planned, the plant would have new automated processes to mitigate negative community impacts commonly associated with pork processing facilities.
With its large, available workforce, central location and excellent access to transportation, the Quad Cities region is the best choice for the Triumph processing plant, said Rick Hoffman, CEO of Triumph Foods.
Thom Hart, president of the Quad City Development Group, said The Quad Cities, straddling between the states of Illinois and Iowa, is at the center of one of the largest hog producing areas in the world, so it makes economic sense for Triumph to locate its facility here.
The projected 1,000 jobs to be generated by this facility could also create 2,900 spin-off and support jobs, with an estimated US$437 million dollar impact on the local economy in the first year, according to the Institute for Decision Making at the University of Northern Iowa.