Premium Iowa Pork will host a ribbon-cutting and open house Friday, March 1, to celebrate the start of its hog processing operation in the former Gold’n Plump plant on the west edge of Luverne.
The Luverne Area Chamber, along with other business representatives and community members, will present the ribbon and oversized scissors for the event that starts at 4 p.m.
According to the company website, Premium Iowa Pork has been providing private-label, antibiotic-free pork to grocery stores across the country since 2005.
All antibiotic-free pork comes from Midwest farms, and all products are currently prepared, processed, and packaged under strict standards at the Hospers, Iowa, facility.
Starting early in 2020, the Luverne facility will join the production ranks, at first with 1,200 hogs per day, and working up to the plant’s permitted 2,200 hogs per day once wastewater treatment processes are in place.
Construction began late in 2018 to retrofit the local 78,000-square-foot plant, which first operated in Luverne as Iowa Beef Processing, to modern hog slaughter operations. PIP is investing roughly $30 million in that building upgrade.
The company will also expand the east side of the building by roughly 12,500 square feet for a total area of 90,500 square feet.
Changes to the property will conform to the existing uses permitted by the zoning.
PIP president Dan Paquin, Hospers, Iowa, said the company has aspirations to one day expand the Luverne facility with new construction to process 4,500 hogs per day if market demand continues.
He said energies will focus initially on plant startup and hiring — first with about two-dozen management personnel, and then production workers.
Employees in Iowa currently start at $13 per hour, but Paquin said the company will consider market forces and economic data before setting Luverne’s salary range.
“We want to be attractive for employees,” he said. “I feel pretty good about where we’re at for hiring.”
Initial production will require 200 workers (at somewhere between $13 to $20 per hour) to Luverne. That number could grow to more than 300 employees, depending on growth.
Luverne has been steadily addressing housing shortages outlined in a 2016 study.
Among other projects, two apartment buildings on the former Sharkee’s lot have been approved for workforce housing funding support from the Department of Employment and Economic Development.
Those 54 apartment units, a mixture of one- and two-bedroom apartments, are expected to rent for $750 per month for a one-bedroom apartment and $950 for two bedrooms, depending on final construction costs.
Paquin said he hopes to draw back some of the 200 employees displaced by the 2017 chicken processing closure, but the company will recruit workers from the tri-state area.
Small company is good fit with small community
“We’re a family-owned company, and we’re very excited about coming to Luverne,” said Jason Golly, CEO of Lynch Livestock, the parent company of Premium Iowa Pork.
“It’s a great community and we’re looking forward to a long future together. … Working with city officials and the mayor has been great; everyone’s been very cooperative. … It’s a community that wants to grow, and we’re a growing company, so it’s a nice fit.”
His wife, Erin, is the daughter of Lynch Livestock owner Gary Lynch, who provides information about the company’s history on the PIP website.
“My family has been active in pork production for over 100 years. We didn’t use additives and antibiotics then, and we don’t use them now,” Lynch writes on the company website.
“Everything we do here — from our focus on each animal’s health to the strict standards we meet and exceed — helps remind people how pork is supposed to taste and where it comes from. We take great pride in that.”