Florida-based Bubba Foods buying meat plant in Hastings, Neb., to produce frozen burgers

Fla.-based firm buying Hastings, Neb., meat plant

HASTINGS, Neb. — A Florida-based hamburger company announced Monday that it will buy the closed Armour-Eckrich meat plant in Hastings, bringing 200 new jobs to the southern Nebraska town.

Billy Morris, president and CEO of Jacksonville, Fla.-based Bubba Foods LLC, said his company is spending more than $11 million to buy the plant and make adjustments for producing frozen Bubba Burgers.

The deal was expected to close March 12, and Morris said he hoped to have the plant back in production by midsummer.

In February 2009, Smithfield Foods Inc. announced its plans to cut 1,800 jobs and close six plants, including its Armour-Eckrich plant in Hastings. Smithfield said the closings were part of a company restructuring made necessary by an overall slump in the meat industry.

Around 370 people lost their jobs when the plant closed in July 2009.

Morris said his company envisions about 200 employees to be working there at full production, which he said would be about 30 million pounds ground beef, packaged and shipped annually.

The plant will be serving markets in the Midwest and West Coast, Morris said.

In a news release announcing the Hastings purchase, Bubba Foods said it also was spending $7.7 million to double the size of its plant in Elberton, Ga.

On the Net:

Bubba Foods: www.bubba-burger.com/