The pet food manufacturer will expand its facility in Kansas and build a new distribution plant.
Simmons Pet Food investment in the Emporia facility will focus on packaging automation systems.
Company president Scott Salmon claimed that the expansion of its Emporia facility will allow the company to produce 60,000 pounds per hour and expand the total annual plant output to more than 70 million cases by early 2024. This is 1.6 billion units more than at present.
A new 750,000-square-foot distribution hub in Edgerton will open by the end of this year.
“Edgerton is an ideal location for new warehouse capacity and automated packaging operations to streamline the distribution of product to our customers throughout the US,” stated Chad Morris, Senior Vice President of Supply Chain at Simmons.
Together, the investments will create 177 jobs and the company also announced plans for a second line of canned pet food facility in Dubuque, Iowa, which will be operating from August this year.
Simmons Pet Food is a private-label and contract manufacturer of wet pet food, supplying top brands and retailers. They currently operate in Northwest Arkansas, Emporia, Kansas, Dubuque, Iowa, and Ontario (Canada).
