Wayne Farms expanding fresh processing facility

Poultry company Wayne Farms will be expanding its fresh processing facility in Dothan, Alabama.
The expansion will double the facility’s capacity and includes building an additional 42,000 square-feet to the already existing structure and adding a minimum of 500 jobs to the local area. The project is tentatively scheduled for completion in the middle of 2016.
Clint Rivers, chief operating officer for Wayne Farms stated: “Wayne Farms is excited for the opportunity to expand our business and bring jobs to the local area. With the rising demand for chicken we have an opportunity to increase our output.”
The Dothan plant consists of a 105,000 square-foot fresh processing facility and employs 356 people from the surrounding area.
The expansion is expected to restore jobs at the facility that were lost after the company announced in 2014 it was discontinuing its deboning lines there.
The facility was built in 1968 and was a Sunnyland pork production facility, reported the Dothan Eagle. The plant was sold in 1986 and converted to a Showell Farms poultry plant. It was sold in 1995 to Perdue Farms and eventually sold again in 2013 to Wayne Farms.
According to the WATT Global Media Top Companies database, Wayne Farms processes 335.4 million birds annually. It has nine slaughter plants, nine hatcheries, eight feed mills and 3,575 growout houses.