Illinois pork processor co-op picks Rantoul for plant site - Newsline - American Premium Foods Inc - Rantoul, Illinois - Brief Article

Rural Cooperatives, Jan-Feb, 2002

An east-central Illinois site in the village of Rantoul has been chosen by American Premium Foods Inc.--a new pork-processing cooperative owned by 250 producers--as the site for its new $25 million plant. Rantoul is near Champaign-Urbana, home of the University of Illinois. Twenty communities competed for the facility.

The Rantoul village board approved an incentive package that included discounts on utilities, a multi-year tax abatement, a waiver of permit fees and a pledge to maintain stable wastewater rates. Closure of an Air Force base left the community with ample water supplies. Still ahead is closing on a 40-acre site and a final engineering study. Ground breaking is slated for the spring, followed by 15 months of construction and anticipated operations by the summer of 2003.

Chairman Jack Rundquist said the firm initially will employ about 200 people. About 2,000 hogs will be processed daily into bacon, chops and other pork products and marketed under the Meadowbrook Farms brand. Jim Burke will manage the cooperative. In June, American Premium Foods received a $500,000, value-added agricultural market development grant from USDA Rural Development.