Kerry's Georgia Facility Named Food Engineering's Sustainable Plant of the Year

The warehouse-turned production facility recently underwent a $125 million renovation and expansion—all while continuing production safely and achieving sustainability goals.

Kerry's Rome, Georgia facility was recently honored by R&FF's sister publication, Food Engineering.

Renovating a facility to increase its capacity, energy use and water consumption doesn’t sound like it would earn Food Engineering’s 2022 Sustainable Project of the Year, but that’s exactly what Kerry’s coatings and seasonings facility has done.

Included as part of Kerry’s acquisition of Southeastern Mills’ coatings and seasonings division in the fourth quarter of 2018, the facility, a warehouse dubbed “Project Bulldog” in honor of the University of Georgia mascot, was ideally located to serve nearby protein processing customers. With consumer demand for poultry products booming thanks to the “Chicken Wars,” the project team was tasked with expanding the facility and increasing the number of coatings/seasonings lines from three to six to better serve customers.