Hospers, Iowa — A Hospers-based pork processing company may be buying a plant just north of the area in Luverne, Minnesota.
The plant is not new. In fact, it was built in the 1960’s. The former IBP plant west of Luverne used to be a beef slaughter operation until it closed in 1998, putting 370 people out of work. Later that year, it became a Gold’n Plump chicken processing plant. In December 2016, Gold’n Plump was acquired by Pilgrim’s Pride. Less than 10 months later, Pilgrim’s Pride closed the Luverne plant, this time putting about 200 people out of work.
If everything goes according to plan for Hospers-based Premium Iowa Pork, the area will regain that number of employees, and maybe more.
Dan Paquin is the President of Premium Iowa Pork. He says if they buy the plant, they would probably start with 200 to 225 employees. He tells us why they’re interested in the Luverne plant.
He says the sale is not yet final.
While he says the City of Luverne has yet to sign off on the agreement, he doesn’t anticipate any large challenges.
He says it would cost about $30 million to re-fit the plant to process pork, and that the work would take between twelve and fifteen months to complete.
Paquin says they would start with a slaughter of about 1200 hogs and work up to about 2200 hogs per day.
He says the plant would need a small addition to fit their needs.
Paquin tells us that he’s optimistic about what the future holds for Premium Iowa Pork in Luverne.
Premium Iowa Pork currently employs about 400 workers and slaughters more than 3,000 hogs per day at their Hospers facility.
