A $40 million investment is bringing 300 jobs to West Point for a new Peco Foods chicken processing facility.
The company, Golden Triangle Development LINK and Gov. Phil Bryant’s office announced the new project with an on-site event on Monday. The new Peco location, which will have workers preparing and freezing chicken products, will be located at the former Americold freezer facility on West Church Hill Road — a 185,000 square-foot facility on 37 acres. The project has received $3 million in state funding to help with roof repairs and worker training.
Golden Triangle LINK CEO Joe Max Higgins said Peco also received 10-year exemptions from city and Clay County ad valorem taxes, as well as a reduction in water rates from the city utilities company.
The new jobs, according to the LINK, will pay an average of $15 to $17 per hour. Higgins said Peco expects to have the 300 jobs filled 36 months after the completion of construction at the facility.
Peco Foods President Mark Hickman said his Tuscaloosa-based company has more than 6,000 employees across Alabama, Arkansas and Mississippi. Peco Foods employs about 3,600 people at its Mississippi locations, which includes a Brooksville facility.
Hickman said West Point’s workforce, which has experience working with similar types of facilities in the past — such as when Sara Lee and Bryan Foods once operated there — helped draw Peco to the city.
“This workforce here is a tremendous asset and we want to tap into that asset and grow our company at the same time, and hopefully create new jobs and opportunities for all of our team members,” Hickman said. “… We’re very pleased to be here and looking forward to the opportunities for the community and the company.”
Hickman said he hopes to have the new facility operational by the end of the year, and the company may build additional facilities on the land to expand its operations. But specifics weren’t ready to share after Monday’s ceremony, he said.
A few people looking to apply for jobs showed up to Monday’s event, though Peco has not yet started taking applications. Hickman said the company should begin accepting job applications in “several” months.
‘Success breeds success’
Bryant lauded Peco’s decision to locate in West Point during Monday’s event. He also said Clay County has become an attractive place for companies to consider.
He said that started, thanks in part, to Yokohama Tire Corporation locating in the county.
“Success breeds success,” Bryant said. “When Yokohama Tire first came, we had other companies begin to look. We talk to companies now all over who want to talk about West Point now — they never did before. Clay County has become a hot property for us now.”
West Point Ward 4 Selectman and Vice Mayor Keith McBrayer, speaking on behalf of the city Monday, said he’s familiar with Peco through its Brooksville facility and a friend who works for the company, and said it’s a “great company.”
Higgins said West Point and Clay County can be difficult to recruit to, and he reminded those at the event that the community has recovered from crippling economic conditions.
“It wasn’t that long ago that they had had setback after setback,” Higgins said. “If they were in a fight, they had been hit in the head, in the gut, in the groin, but they were still standing up. It hasn’t been that long ago that this county had 22 percent unemployment, or the highest unemployment in the state of Mississippi.”
But Clay County, Higgins continued, has turned around with Peco Foods, and projects such as Yokohama, Plum Creek Environmental and other new job opportunities.
Clay County Board of Supervisors President Lynn Horton said Peco Foods’ new facility should help provide local employment opportunities so residents don’t have to travel to find good work.
“This facility will give us a chance to get that unemployment lowered,” Horton said. “We have very good people here who are willing to work and want to work. We have lots of people traveling out of town to Lee County and different counties to work. We’ve got a chance to let them work at home here at West Point.”
Bryant said Clay County’s success is a testament to its people.
“These are a resilient, tough group of people here in West Point and they’re not going to stay down,” he said. “That makes a lot of difference. When you’re determined to be successful, you’re successful, and that’s West Point and Clay County.”
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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