Closed Minnesota beef plant to become pork processing plant

Buyers plan to invest $20-25 million to convert plant to process pork.

February 4, 2016

1 Min Read
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PM Beef, the last beef processing plant in Minnesota, closed its doors Dec. 11, 2015, but according to a report from the Minnesota Star Tribune, it’s now under new ownership to become a state-of-the-art pork processing plant called Prime Pork.

According to the report, the Windom, Minn., plant has been purchased by Glen Taylor, owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves, and many other businesses, for an undisclosed sum.

The plan is to invest $20-25 million to convert the plant.

After over 20 years of business under PM Beef Holdings, the plant closed due to volatility in the cattle industry.

Taylor, who grew up on a farm just northeast of Windom, told the Star Tribune in an interview that returning jobs to the area is a big part of his interest in the project. Taylor hopes to rehire many of the plant's former employees.

Greg Strobel, a hog producer in Pemberton, is partnering with Taylor on the plant, which will likely take about nine months.

“Our goal is to focus on taste and quality so that we bring a premium product to market and not just an ordinary hog,” Strobel told the newspaper. “We don’t have volume for the Wal-Marts of the world, and quite frankly, we don’t want to compete against (large pork processors) JBS and Tyson.”

The Prime Pork plant is expected to harvest more than 4,000 hogs daily, or about 1.5 million hogs annually.

Approximately 300-350 workers will be hired initially, according to Strobel. The pigs will come from the two main partners but may expand to other hog producers in southern Minnesota as the plant grows, he added.

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