Lamb Weston has completed a $200m expansion project at an existing potato facility in Richland, Washington (WA) to increase its processing capacity for manufacturing frozen French fries.
The Richland facility, which was built in 1972, was expanded by 290,000ft2 to accommodate a new processing line which would boost its annual production capacity by nearly 300 million pounds.
A total of more than 600 employees at the existing and expanded facilities will produce 600 million pounds of frozen french fries annually.
Lamb Weston president and CEO Tom Werner said: “This expansion allows us to build on our presence here in Richland, WA while increasing our capabilities so we can grow with our customers around the globe.
“We’re proud to be a part of the community in the Tri-Cities, and we’re especially grateful to our community partners who worked with us to make this expansion a reality.”
The expansion, which was announced in June 2016 by ConAgra Foods, has created nearly 150 jobs. In November 2016, ConAgra completed the spin-off of Lamb Weston into a separate entity, focused on frozen potato business.
ConAgra Foods rebranded itself as Conagra Brands post separation from Lamb Weston, in a move to become a singularly focused, consumer branded food company.
Lamb Weston has 24 manufacturing plants across North America, Europe and China. It supplies frozen potato, appetizer, sweet potato and vegetable products to retailers and restaurants around the world.
In April, Lamb Weston’s European joint venture Lamb-Weston/Meijer entered into a deal to acquire the potato business of Oerlemans Foods Nederland. The acquisition included a frozen potato processing facility in Broekhuizenvorst in Netherlands which adds 185 million pounds of production capacity to Lamb-Weston/Meijer.
