Chicken feed mill to be built in Spruce Pine

FCDA Executive Director Mitch Mays addresses the crowd during the announcement on April 10 at the NWSCC Phil Campbell campus. The FCDA announced a $25 million dollar mill that will begin construction in June in Spruce Pine, Ala.

The Franklin County Development Authority along with Mar-Jac Poultry announced at the Phil Campbell campus of NWSCC on April 10 the beginning construction of a $25 million feed mill in Spruce Pine, Ala.

FCDA Executive Director, Mitch Mays said a lot of hard work and cooperation went into bringing the mill to Franklin County.

“A lot of work by many different people went into this project and across a lot of groups,” Mays said. “Folks in the local community, the county commission, and many others put a lot of hours into bringing this industry to Franklin County.”

Pete Martin, Vice President of Operations for Mar-Jac, said he had been in the chicken business for a long time and it was an honor to be in the state of Alabama.

“I’m grateful that we can expand,” Martin said. “And Alabama is a great place to do business. We have been welcomed with open arms.”

Martin said the economic impact on the county and the region, as a whole would be around $1.2 billion.

“This is going to have a great economic impact on everybody involved and that money is going to be coming through Spruce Pine, Phil Campbell, and all of Franklin County,” Martin said. “We’re going to start turning dirt in June and hopefully be open and running by 2017.”

Martin said Mar-Jac would be more than just an industry located in Franklin County doing business.

“We plan on being more than just a business located in this county,” Martin said. “We will be a good neighbor and support local schools and civic activities as well. We want to be a part of the community.”

Franklin County Commission Chairman Barry Moore said he was excited that this finally came to fruition and that he looked forward to continued development.

“This was a $25 million investment in our community and we look forward to a long relationship with Mar-Jac going into the future,” Moore said.

State Sen. Larry Stutts said it was great to see the community come together as a team to pull something like this together.

“I really appreciate the large team that made this happen,” Stutts said. “I’m thankful that Mar-Jac chose this area for their expansion and for the farmers in our state, this gives one more outlet for them to sell to.”

State Rep. Ken Johnson said this feed mill will help the employment situation in the district and he hoped that trend would continue.

“It is no surprise to anyone, I’m sure, that we as a state have budget woes,” Johnson said. “But any addition to the economy in this area helps. What we are doing by bringing projects like this together is positioning ourselves in Alabama to be a leader in agriculture and agricultural production.”

Mays also pointed out that without the railroad in the area the project might have never happened.

“With all the hours of work and all the people involved with putting this project together and getting Mar-Jac to build this mill here, it might have never happened if it wasn’t for Norfolk-Southern,” Mays said. “This project might not have even been considered.”

Mays said the building of the feed mill at the Spruce Pine location is a start and that he hopes to see further development.

“Right now it is a good first step for the county and for this area, but maybe it can be the start of something bigger,” Mays said. “I certainly would like to see more expansion and further economic growth in our county.”

Mar-Jac Poultry is a fully integrated poultry production company. Established in 1954, the Gainesville, Ga. company has supplied a variety of poultry products since beginning.

In a move to integrate their poultry operations, the Mar-Jac processing facility was purchased in 1962 by a diversified group of poultry companies.  A group of growers that provided birds to the Mar-Jac processing plant formed a marketing cooperative in 1962 and purchased it from the McKibbon brothers. Under the agreement, the hatcheries, AC Smith Poultry, CWT Farms and Bruce-Wilson Poultry, would supply chicks to three different groups of cooperative growers. The feed mill, HFC Feeds, which supplied the feed, was completely rebuilt in 1969. To further cement the functional areas, the company was consolidated under the current ownership in 1984.

Since that time Mar-Jac Poultry, Inc. has undergone numerous improvements and expansions. In 1989, the company opened a state of the art hatchery in Lula, Ga. In 1995, the company broke ground on a 40,000 square foot freezer with internal blast capabilities and in subsequent years a continuous freezing system was built.  The production has expanded from 450,000 birds per week in the 1980s to over 1,000,000 per week in the 1990s and 2,000,000 birds per week today, according to officials.  In 2005, a new state of the art feed mill was completed in Maysville, Ga. and it currently produces over 8,500 tons of feed per week.