The J.M. Smucker Co. is investing $1.1 billion to build a new manufacturing facility and distribution center in McCalla, Alabama, dedicated to production of Smucker’s Uncrustables sandwiches. Construction of the facility is expected to begin in January 2022, with production planned for 2025. 

Tyson Foods is building a $355 million bacon plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky, primarily for the production of Wright Brand and Jimmy Dean retail and foodservice products. The 400,000-square-foot facility is expected to create 450 jobs with production beginning in late 2023.

HempRise has opened its 100,000-square-foot operation in Jeffersonville, Indiana. The plant has the capacity to produce 10 metric tons of hemp biomass per day, which is equivalent to approximately 8 million pounds of biomass per year. The company selected Gray to design and build the facility.

We in the trade press have been extolling the virtues of automation for a long time, and you’re probably sick of hearing us ramble on about it. Nevertheless, if there were any other reason to take a hard look at implementing automation—at least partially—in your facility, it would be now. COVID-19 has certainly created some practical problems: Short-staff due to people at home sick with coronavirus, social distancing impossible on cutting/protein lines, changeover time killing production output…and the list goes on.

Plant openings and expansions in food and beverage manufacturing for March 2021.

Plant openings and expansions in food and beverage manufacturing for February 2021.