Smithfield Foods to invest $100M in NC pork plant

The company wants to build a new distribution center and expand its cold storage capabilities at its processing facility in Tar Heel. The moves will add about 250 jobs, as well as employment opportunities with Smithfield’s logistics partner, officials said.

"This expansion reflects the promising new era we’re experiencing at Smithfield," President and Chief Executive Kenneth Sullivan said in a statement. "It supports our continued growth and helps us better serve our customers by providing additional capacity and optimizing our distribution footprint."

Smithfield will begin construction of the 500,000-square-foot distribution center this month. The cold storage expansion is already underway and will increase the facility’s capacity by 140 million pounds. Both projects will be complete by fall 2018.

The Tar Heel facility is the largest pork processing plant in the world and produces fresh pork products for customers across the globe. The facility employs nearly 5,000 people and processes more than 30,000 hogs each day.