By Beacon Staff
Matt Bormann, CEO of Western Smokehouse Partners, joked he would normally discuss the difficulties in bringing a new manufacturing plant to town.
But that wasn’t the case. Bormann spoke about the smooth transition into Burlington during a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday, April 20, at the company’s new manufacturing plant at 3800 West Ave. in Burlington.
“The city really came together and helped us along,” Bormann said.
Carl A. Nelson and Company were tasked with turning the building into a facility suitable for making meat sticks.
Borman said due to their quick work, the factory will begin production in early May.
“We told them (Carl A. Nelson) that we needed this in nine months. Our customers needed it. It should have been impossible. You guys made it possible,” he said, addressing members of the construction company.
Tours of the facility explained how the meat sticks are made, and plenty of area residents at the event expressed interest in working at the facility. About 30 people have been hired, and more jobs are posted online on Indeed.
“We have the first initial wave of people hired. They’re going to be starting next week. And then we will continue to bring people on to build to 150 people by the end of the year,” said Crystal Bohm, chief human resources officer for the plant.
Bohm said a lot of the management team for the new plant has been in place for a couple of weeks. She had fielded more than 300 applications already.
“We will be looking for processing technicians and packaging technicians. Those are the positions we will continue to hire,” she said.
Western Smokehouse Partners, known as Western Smokehouse and Meat Market, is headquartered in Greentop, Mo. The company is leasing the building. Integra vacated the building in February 2022, resulting in a change of plans for Western Smokehouse Partners.
“We had identified a building in Terre Haute, Ind. But structurally, it wasn’t going to work, and there was nothing we could do. We found this place within a week. It’s a great location. As far as our other plants, it’s pretty centrally located,” Bohm said.
Western Smokehouse and Thrushwood Farms were separately founded in 1978 by Sam Western and Jim Hankes. They met each other through the industry and became good friends. Their sons, Kevin Western and Doug Hankes, grew up in the industry together — and each started making meat sticks.
After a facility expansion, Western’s and Thrushwood decided to combine. The Western and Hankes families remain shareholders, and there are processing plants in Springfield, Ill., and Galesburg, Ill.
When the facility is up and running, it is expected to process 13.2 million pounds of meat annually.