US-based food establishment Bell & Evans has broken ground on its new chicken processing and packaging plant in Fredericksburg, Lebanon County, in the state of Virginia.
The company plans to invest around $44m in the construction and new equipment for the proposed plant.
The158,000ft2 plant is expected to create 380 local jobs and will retain1,108 more positions over the next three years.
Sechler Family Foods, parent company of Bell & Evans, chairman and president Scott Sechler said the project is expected to be a world-class, showplace of a processing plant that will produce the Bell & Evans brand of natural and organic poultry.
"Pennsylvania, Lebanon County, Bethel Township is the best place in the U.S.A. to do it," added Sechler.
The project was backed by the Governor's Action Team, an experienced group of economic development professionals, as well as the Lebanon Valley Economic Development Corporation.
