WINDOM, Minn. – Glen Taylor, a prominent businessmen in Minnesota, signed a deal last week to purchase a former PM Beef plant in Windom.

According to a
Minneapolis Star Tribunereport, Taylor and his business partner Greg Strobel, plan to invest $20 to $25 million to convert the plant from a beef-processing facility to a pork plant as part of the new company, Prime Pork. One of the goals of the plant is to focus on quality meat that is locally sourced and raised by Minnesota-based producers.

“We want to say that we’ve watched the meat from birth to your store and we can guarantee that what you’re getting meets certain criteria because it’s all been under the handling of just a few families,” Taylor said in the Star Tribune report.

The previous owners of the plant, PM Beef, closed the plant Dec. 11, 2015, due to challenging market conditions in the beef industry. Approximately 262 people worked at the plant.

“That has the ripple effect of hurting the local economy, like the school district and grocery stores,” Windom City Administrator Steven Nasby said to theGrand Fork Herald.

Nasby went on to say that the new operation will employ 300 people initially and up to 500 people within two years. City officials also said they the renovations at the facility will take about six to nine months.

Windom is located about 160 miles southwest of Minneapolis.