JBS USA broke ground on a new sausage production facility in central Iowa Tuesday with local and state officials.
The $135 million facility in Perry is slated to be operational at the end of next year and will scale-up to employ 500 people across two shifts.
“It will bring good jobs back to Perry, so our residents don’t have to commute to work. It will attract new businesses and residents to our community. It will also give a boost to our existing businesses,” said Perry Mayor Dirk Cavanaugh.
He added that the JBS plant will help the 8,000-person community “recover from last year’s setbacks.”
In June 2024, Tyson Foods closed its Perry pork processing plant. City officials said it affected nearly 1,300 employees, around 60% of whom lived in the community. Losing the largest employer in the community came just months after a school shooting that killed three people and injured six others.
“This community embodies the idea that you are more than your circumstances. With every unforeseen challenge, unthinkable tragedy or business setback, you show us what you are made of — hard work, heart and optimism,” said Debi Durham, director of the Iowa Economic Development Authority.
In June, the Iowa Economic Development Authority approved $12 million in tax benefits for the JBS plant in Perry through the High Quality Jobs program. The city of Perry also plans to provide tax increment financing rebates of $10 million over a decade.
Wesley Batista Filho, JBS USA chief executive officer, said the Perry plant is the company’s first sausage facility in the U.S. Once both shifts are running, the plant will be able to process 500,000 sows each year and produce 130 million pounds of sausage.
Some of that sausage will go to a facility JBS recently purchased from Hy-Vee in Ankeny, said Rick Foster, head of JBS USA prepared foods. The Ankeny plant will supply ready-to-eat bacon and cooked sausage to fast-food restaurants and the pizza industry.
JBS plans to open part of the Ankeny facility in July 2026, while the ready-to-eat sausage section will open once the Perry plant is operational, Foster explained.
“JBS has historically been more of a harvesting company in the beef and the pork industry, and now we’re growing in the value-added products,” Foster said.
When asked whether current federal immigration policies could affect hiring, Foster said there are no concerns.
“We feel very strongly about the workforce that we’ll be able to put together here,” Foster said.
While Tyson’s former pork processing plant sits empty across town, Filho said JBS decided to build a new, state-of-the-art plant to “be sure that this is going to be here 100 years from now.”
