Facility to be one of nation's largest, support Indiana's agriculture industry

Fort Wayne, IN -- Walmart, the nation’s largest grocer, announced plans today to establish a milk processing plant in Fort Wayne, providing new opportunities for Indiana’s dairy industry and creating more than 200 good-paying jobs ranging from milk processing to transportation by the end of 2017. 

“Today, Indiana’s agriculture industry contributes $31 billion to the state’s economy and supports more than 100,000 Hoosier jobs,” said Governor Mike Pence. “Last year, Walmart opened a 1.2 million-square-foot distribution center in Plainfield, creating more than 300 jobs, and today we celebrate 200 more. I’m proud to welcome this expansion as we work to create quality jobs for Hoosiers and support our Indiana farmers.” 

With construction anticipated to begin this summer, Walmart will build a more than 250,000-square-foot milk processing plant, which is expected to be one of the largest in the industry, at 2322 W. Pleasant Center Road. 

Grand Island, NE -- Part of the Layer Business Unit of Hendrix Genetics will expand its hatchery operation to Grand Island, Nebraska in Spring 2016. This expansion, along with fully operating hatcheries in Ephrata, Pennsylvania and in Blackstone, Virginia, demonstrates the commitment of Hendrix-ISA in serving the US-market with premium quality, day-old, cage free, egg laying chicks (layer chicks).

"After a thorough exploration phase and an investigation of multiple locations and possibilities, we have chosen Grand Island, Nebraska for our company's expansion," Peter Mumm, Managing Director of Hendrix-ISA LLC says. "The minute we stepped off of the plane in Grand Island we were impressed with the community. The community's readily available infrastructure, progressive growth, both industrial and commercial, and people all contributed to our decision to make Grand Island the future home of our expansion."