IBP Completes Purchase of Hudson Plant

IBP, Inc., Dakota City, Neb., has announced that the acquisition of the Hudson Foods facility in Columbus, Neb., is complete. In August, IBP took out an option to buy the raw ground-beef patty processing plant, after a 25-million pound recall of product from the facility.

Initially, IBP will run one shift of production. But as the customer base is re-established, production and hiring will increase accordingly. "This represents another step forward in our strategy to expand IBP's presence in value-added food production, by increasing the volume of further-processed ground meat we produce," commented David Layhee, IBP president for value-added ground meats. "We will institute the same standards for quality that we currently have at our other facilities, which more than satisfy USDA requirements."

About 130 former Hudson employees have been hired for the start-up operations at the newly named IBP Platte County Processed Meats plant. Remaining former employees have been offered the opportunity to work at IBP's pork plant in Madison, Neb., or other IBP facilities.

By: Mike Pehanich