Construction on plant expected to be finished between 2022 and 2023.

Krissa Welshans, Livestock Editor

October 29, 2020

1 Min Read
Empirical Foods breaks ground on Kansas ground beef facility

Empirical Foods recently broke ground on its new ground beef facility in Garden City, Kan. The planned facility, which is now the largest single investment in the company’s 40-year history, will bring 250 new jobs and more than $250 million in capital investment to Garden City and Finney County.

“After a long evaluation period to identify the perfect location for our new facility, we were pleased to settle on Garden City and could not have identified a better, more welcoming community,” Nick Roth, president of Empirical Technology Inc., said. “The state of Kansas, Garden City and the Finney County Economic Development Corp. have been excellent partners to the beef industry and companies like ours.”

Empirical Foods’ decision to expand comes as the result of increased demand for lean ground beef, requiring a significant boost in processing and manufacturing. When fully operational, the Garden City facility will more than double Empirical’s ground beef production capacity.

“Empirical Foods made a smart decision in choosing to do business in a community with so much to offer in excellent schools, infrastructure and quality-of-life amenities for employees and their families,” Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly said. “Projects like this will continue to strengthen our state’s foundation and help us attract more companies like Empirical to do business in Kansas.”

Kansas secretary of commerce David Toland joined company officials at the Garden City site for the groundbreaking.

“This major investment is another huge win in our state’s effort to secure our food systems, now and into the future,” Toland said. “Empirical Foods is a terrific company with high standards of excellence. This is an exciting day for this company, for Garden City and for our state.”

Construction on the plant is expected to be finished between 2022 and 2023.

About the Author(s)

Krissa Welshans

Livestock Editor

Krissa Welshans grew up on a crop farm and cow-calf operation in Marlette, Michigan. Welshans earned a bachelor’s degree in animal science from Michigan State University and master’s degree in public policy from New England College. She and her husband Brock run a show cattle operation in Henrietta, Texas, where they reside with their son, Wynn.

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