November 3, 2006

Gold Kist unveils new expansion

Gold Kist is holding a grand opening for its US$70 million, 180,000-square-foot expansion in Live Oak, Fla.

The expansion comes in the midst of a persistent takeover offer from the second largest US chicken processor in the US, Pilgrim's Pride and barely two months after it announced the completion of a US$30 million plant in Alabama.

Gold Kist's President and CEO, John Bekkers, said the expansion is the largest single investment that Gold Kist has ever made in a facility.

The expansion doubles the plant's capacity to produce value-added products and would support the growth of Publix Super Markets, one of the company's largest private label retail customers.

The expansion also includes new air chilling technology that cools the chickens using fresh, filtered cold air instead of the usual water immersion. Gold Kist would process chickens that are antibiotic-free and raised on an all-vegetable diet to tap into the growing organic market.

Gold Kist is among the first major chicken processors in the United States to offer this antibiotic free, air chilled premium product line that will be marketed first by Publix under the GreenWise Market label.