Garner, NC – Butterball LLC has acquired Montgomery, Ill.-based Gusto Packing Co. Gusto Packing Co.’s leadership team plus approximately 500 employees are expected to remain in their current positions. Gusto produces six product lines – Hickory & Apple Wood smoked bacon, bone-in smoked pork and turkey products, smoked boneless hams, cooked hams, pork and turkey deli meats plus spiral sliced hams.

“With Gusto’s 260,000-sq.-ft. facility, we are adding approximately 325 million lbs. of further-processed capacity to our operations,” said Rod Brenneman, Butterball chief executive officer. “This additional capacity allows us to support Butterball-branded geographic expansion and achieve greater account penetration within current markets. It also affords us the ability to develop and manufacture innovative products for the Butterball brand.”

This acquisition provides Gusto an opportunity to benefit from a national logistics and distribution network and further enhance quality and food-safety initiatives, Brenneman added.

Garner, NC-based Butterball is the largest turkey product producer in the US – producing more than 1 billion lbs. of turkey per year.