FARGO, ND – Lenders announced plans to foreclose on a meat processing plant owned by North Dakota Natural Beef LLC, according to inforum.com.

ND Natural Beef immediately closed its beef and bison processing operations and laid off its workforce in August. The closure came after the company’s largest customer completed a beef slaughter and processing plant expansion at a facility in Buffalo Lake, Minn.

The company had been experiencing financial problems. In April, the North American Bison Cooperative and ND Natural Beef were assessed civil penalties by the US Department of Agriculture’s Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) for failing to pay and failing to pay, when due, the full purchase price of livestock.

Dieter Pape, president and CEO of the defunct company, told inforum.com that ND Natural Beef never made an annual profit. He cited construction delays, a dispute with a contractor followed by the 2008 recession as reasons for the company’s failure.