McCain USA Invests over USD200m in Processing Plant Expansion

McCain Foods USA announced the investment of more than USD200m into expanding the plant in Burley, Idaho, which implies the creation of 180 jobs and the increase of potato production throughout the state.

The company will construct additional buildings behind its existing facilities, Burley City Administrator, Mark Mitton, said. He added that McCain will receive a 30% reimbursement of taxes over 15 years, totaling USD5.86m. Construction will begin this month, Idaho Commerce said in a statement. The new capacity will be up and running in late summer 2018.

“McCain has been a part of the Burley community since the 1960’s,” says Jeff DeLapp, regional president, North America. “This investment will bring more jobs, continued partnerships with local potato growers and expanded capacity to meet increasing demand for McCain products,” he adds.

This investment follows previous McCain expansion announcements in its specialty potato capacity in Plover, Wisconsin and most recently its USD65m investment in its facility in Florenceville, New Brunswick (Canada).

McCain had announced plans of expansion in 2013, with an investment of USD100m, but in 2014 the plans were put on hold. This past December, McCain Foods said it was evaluating which of its plants to expand. When the project is completed it is expected to add more than 400m lbs of capacity to the Burley facility.