Ashby, Minnesota-based TFC Poultry LLC will invest $31.5 million to open a second U.S. production facility in Winchester, Virginia.
The company chose Virginia over other potential expansion sites in West Virginia.
TFC Poultry is a specialized poultry processor that debones turkey thighs using proprietary technology that includes X-ray and metal detection. The company says it has experienced increased demand for its products due to increased domestic demand for dark turkey meat from food processors.
It says it is the only third-party operation of its kind in the U.S.
The company will convert the former Sunshine’s Pride Dairy facility in Winchester, which closed in 2011, into its new processing plant, and create 111 new jobs.
TFC Poultry has also committed to purchasing more than 100 million pounds of Virginia-raised turkeys over the next four years.
The company will receive a $500,000 grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund. A $400,000 grant from the Governor’s Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development Fund will assist the city of Winchester with the project. TFC Poultry is also eligible for benefits from the Virginia Enterprise Zone program.
The company’s founders, Darrin and Trent Froemming, gained an interest in poultry in grade school when raising chickens for a 4-H project. They began selling frozen chicken to friends and family, and founded TFC Poultry in 2008 when they purchased and remodeled a shuttered poultry plant in Ashby.
“We specifically chose Winchester, Virginia, due to two primary factors: the first was the availability of all ranges of talent and that talent’s proximity to the new location; and the second reason was the embracing of progress the city demonstrated to the company throughout its due diligence stage. No other community held such an aggressive, yet genuinely welcoming reception,” said Darrin Froemming in a statement.
