Springfield Business Journal_2021-01-25

20 · SBJ.NET JAN 25-31, 2021 FROM THE COVER Print, Promo, and Fulfillment management so you can focus on growing your non-profit. GrowWithEDC.com The owners bought the pl ant and its 260- acre property in July 2020 for undisclosed terms from the Bank of Sullivan and Blue Ridge Bank and Trust Co., Dallen Davies said, adding there is plenty of room for ex- pansion as the need arises. The property was in foreclosure after Moon Ridge Foods LLC closed its plant in January 2018 after two years of operat- ing. Moon Ridge officials ini- tially referred to the closure as temporary, but the facility nev- er reopened and sat vacant un- til Missouri Prime Beef Packers bought it, said Pleasant Hope Mayor Richard Harralson. Harralson and Gail Noggle, executive director for the Eco- nomic Development Alliance for Bolivar and Polk County, both indicated Moon Ridge’s closure was a financial decision by its own- ership. At the time of its closure, Moon Ridge CEO Russ Kremer said the company posted $70 million in sales during its first 12 months in operation, according to Spring- field Business Journal archives. It was the second time for the property to experience a closure. It originally opened in 2008 as a pork processing facility owned by Taiwan-based Tai Shin Foods USA. Noggle said a beef processing facility is more likely to succeed in southwest Mis- souri. “To manufacture beef, your availability of that product is much greater in this area than there is in pigs and pork,” she said. “For sustainability purposes, this is much, much greater.” Cattle is plentiful in the Show-Me State, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data. Missouri ranks third in the country in the number of beef cows with just over 2 million in 2019, trail- ing only Texas and Oklahoma. New in town Missouri Prime Beef’s Thompson also co-owns Paxico, Kansas-based Nextgen Cattle Co., a seedstock production op- eration that produces Beefmas- ter and Charolais bulls. Stacy Davies, who lives in southeast Oregon, is a client of Nextgen and has 30 years of experience in the agriculture industry, his son said. That includes 10 years with Country Natu- ral Beef, a cooperative of ranches in the Pa- cific Northwest, for which he served as its marketing director up until 2019. Dallen Davies said Thompson expressed interest in expanding to new ventures and asked Stacy Davies to help. Davies said his father agreed on the condition that the two could own their own processing plant. “He knew that in order to have success building a beef program at the scale Derek was wanting to do, he would need to have some control of processing space,” he said. “Together, they started looking. It wasn’t overnight. It was a couple years they were searching for the right place.” Aside from Missouri, the owners toured plants in Colorado, Florida and New Mexi- co, Davies said. “It’s a really nice facility, and it’s cen- trally located in the U.S. amidst an extensive supply of good quality cattle,” he said. “It’s also within a close enough proximity to the Nextgen feed lots [in Kansas] that it made sense.” Becoming incentivized Efforts of the Economic Development Alliance helped secure the company’s com- mitment to come to Polk County, Noggle said, noting she was involved in discussions with the owners for nearly a year. “Anytime you have an announcement of 250 new jobs that are good-paying jobs and qualify for state and local incentives that are livable wages with benefits, that impact is huge,” she said. “If Springfield got 250 jobs, it would be a big deal. But it’s a really big deal for a rural community.” She said the company took advantage of Polk County’s enhanced enterprise zone program, which grants property tax abate- ment to businesses that locate or expand within designated areas. It was able to qual- ify for 100% property tax abatement for 10 years, she said. The state offered incentives through the Missouri Works program, which helps businesses create jobs and facility expan- sions through payroll withholdings or tax credits, according to the state’s DED web- site. Missouri Prime Beef also is partnering with Missouri One Start, a division of the DED, to provide recruitment assistance tai- lored to meet the company’s specific work- force needs. Company officials and Noggle declined to disclose financial terms of the state incentives. Because the town is only roughly 660 residents, according to U.S. Census Bureau data, Noggle said the workforce likely will come from a radius of 35-40 miles. “All of these people aren’t going to come from Bolivar. They’re good enough jobs that people are going to drive to get here,” she said. Up next As plant renovations near an end, Mis- souri Prime Beef is building out its client list, Davies said. Declining to disclose clients, he said roughly 20 are wanting to secure “hook space” in the plant for processing both fed and nonfed beef cattle. “Our problem right now is not getting the clients,” Paschkov said. “It’s selecting which ones we’re going to work with.” Davies said the plant’s checkered past was not a concern for Missouri Prime Beef’s owners. Processing beef and pork are “worlds apart,” he said, adding the company is confident it can provide good jobs for the southwest Missouri area for years to come. “We’re aware of the past negative experi- ences they’ve had with this plant,” he said. “We’re doing our best to make sure they don’t have to go through that again.” Beef: Company utilizes state, local incentives for plant Continued from page 1 Gail Noggle : Workforce likely will come from a 40-mile radius.