SILOAM SPRINGS, ARK. – Simmons Foods announced plans for a $100 million expansion of its prepared foods plant in Van Buren, Ark. The 65,000-square-foot expansion of the existing facility will add two automated production and packaging lines.

“This investment will create 100 new jobs, including highly skilled positions to support robotics and automation processes,” said Joel Sappenfield, president of Simmons Prepared Foods. “The expansion will also support growth in the local economy and assist in meeting market demand for one of the fastest growing segments of the business – cooked products.” 

Simmons Foods currently employs about 600 full-time workers at the Van Buren plant. The current facility houses three production lines that produce approximately 110,000,000 lbs of fully cooked, premium chicken products annually. The expansion will increase production capacity by approximately 100,000,000 lbs.

Nabholz Construction, general contractor for the project, will break ground later this month. Production is expected to be online in the first quarter of 2023.

“We’re excited to build on our success in the region,” Sappenfield said. “Our River Valley team is an important part of our company’s total operations. We have three production locations here in the River Valley as well as a Hiring Center and a Simmons Care Clinic dedicated to providing medical care with no added co-pays exclusively for our team members and their covered dependents.”