SPRUCE PINE, Ala. – Mar-Jac Poultry Alabama LLC announced an expansion initiative at its Northwest Alabama poultry operations starting with a $25 million feed mill.
Mar-Jac plans to build the new feedmill in Spruce Pine in Franklin County, Ala. The company expects to create at least 30 new jobs and retain another 20 positions at a nearby facility.
“After careful consideration, the Mar-Jac board of directors chose Spruce Pine as the location for this investment to ensure the present and future growth of our Northwest Alabama operations,” Doug Carnes, a Mar-Jac director, said in a statement. “Mar-Jac’s new feedmill is a critical part of our poultry complex in supplying feed to farms throughout north Alabama.”
Spruce Pine is close to the center of the company’s grower base, Carnes said, with access to the Norfolk Southern railroad line that will bring in up to 100 rail cars of grain and soy every seven to 10 days for the feedmill. Mar-Jac will buy additional soy and corn produced by local farms.
Additional projects include a $10 million expansion Mar-Jac's processing plant in Jasper, Ala. that will create 50 jobs and a $7 million expansion of a hatchery in Moulton, Ala. that will create 25 jobs. Also in the works —a poultry house construction project. Mar-Jac plans to contract with area farmers to build 100 to 125 broiler, pullet and hen houses.
“Alabama is a major poultry producing state, and the industry is responsible for a substantial economic impact and thousands of jobs,” Alabama Secretary of Commerce Greg Canfield said in a statement. “This expansion by Mar-Jac Poultry will strengthen the industry’s base in Northwest Alabama and create and retain jobs in Franklin, Walker and Lawrence counties, and throughout the region.”
Mar-Jac processes chicken for wholesale distributors, the foodservice industry and for export. In January 2014, the company acquired Birmingham, Ala.-based Marshall Durban in a deal that included a poultry processing plant, hatcheries, feed mills, a laboratory and distribution center.
