WILDER, Idaho – CTI Food Holding Co. LLC had the winning bid for a ground beef processing plant owned by AFA Foods, Inc. CTI provides food products to national chain restaurants.

CTI announced the transaction for the facility in King of Prussia, Penn., received court approval on July 13. The transaction is expected to close the following week.

“As we continue to grow our company on a national basis it was important to establish a manufacturing presence on the East Coast," said Bobby Horowitz, CEO of CTI Foods. "AFA’s King of Prussia is an outstanding facility that will allow us to strengthen our already close relationships with customers and suppliers to provide a variety of high quality food products.”

AFA, based in King of Prussia, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on April 2, citing changes in the market for ground beef and the impact of the controversy over lean finely textured beef (LFTB). AFA was a competitor of Beef Products Inc., another producer of LFTB that was embroiled in the LFTB controversy.

A federal bankruptcy court approved AFA Foods’ plan to sell two of its five processing plants to separate buyers. The company's ground beef processing facility in Fort Worth, Texas was sold to Cargill for $14.1 million. FPL Food LLC bought the company’s Thomasville, Ga., plant for $7.3 million and its Los Angeles plant was sold to Tri West Investments for $4.4 million, according to media reports.

CTI has five food processing facilities and has 1,000 employees at the company’s Idaho, Texas and California locations.