Fromm Family Foods recently spent US$10 million to convert an old animal feed mill outside of Madison, Wisconsin, USA, into a petfood manufacturing facility, madison.com reported.
The facility in Columbus, Wisconsin, USA, closed in 2007 and was recently redone by Fromm to create 70,000 square feet of manufacturing and warehouse space, including a 10,000-square-foot meat processing facility and the original 120-foot-tall mill tower. The Columbus plant was designed to produce 30 tons of petfood per hour with its 20 employees, compared to the Mequon, Wisconsin, USA, plant that currently produces about 9 tons of petfood per hour with 40 employees.
The Mequon facility will eventually be used for accounting, sales and product development, with the Columbus plant producing the majority of petfood. A third bagging line is scheduled to be added in Columbus as well as a 50,000-square-foot warehouse. Owner Tom Nieman predicts the company will double or triple its production of 600 tons per week over the next five years with the addition of the Columbus manufacturing facility.
