Destinations to which Peco Foods exports its chicken include Cuba, Mexico, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Iraq.
Tuscaloosa-based chicken processor Peco Foods announced plans in May to open a new $40 million plant in northeast Mississippi to make, store and distribute frozen chicken products.
Peco is acquiring a 185, 000-square-foot warehouse formerly occupied by AmeriCold and strategically located on 37 acres near interstate and major rail corridors. The plant adds needed capacity for Peco to supply customers in the restaurant, grocery and food service distribution sectors. Peco Foods has been family owned for three generations.
Peco, the nation’s eighth-largest poultry company, will hire 300 people over the next four years in West Point.
“The addition of this new cold storage facility is a key component of our growth strategy and is perfectly tailored to meet our current needs as well as future plans, ” Peco Foods CEO Mark Hickman said in a statement.
Peco has more than 6, 000 employees. The company, which also serves international customers, started as a small hatchery and feed mill in Gordo, Alabama in 1937. It now has processing plants throughout Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas.
Text by Dave Helms
