CHEROKEE, Iowa — Iowa Food Group (IFG) has reportedly sold the former Tyson Foods Inc. meat processing plant that suspended its operations in April to Lopez Foods.

According to The Chronicle Times of Cherokee, the two companies closed the deal on July 12 and an official announcement is expected to come within the next month.

The northwest Iowa plant was previously owned by Tyson Foods Inc. until it was closed in September 2014. At the time of the closure, 450 jobs were eliminated. IFG acquired the facility in September 2018 and proposed processing beef, pork, lamb and other proteins. In the past, the plant supplied meat products to McDonald’s Corp.

Lopez Foods has been a meat packing company based in Oklahoma since the 1980s. It originated as a spinoff from Wilson Foods who originally build the Cherokee plant in 1963-64 according to the Chronicle Times.