Butterball, LLC, based in Garner, N.C., acquired Gusto Packing Co., a Montgomery, Ill.-based family-owned and operated processor that offers hickory and apple wood smoked bacon, bone-in smoked pork and turkey products, smoked boneless hams, cooked hams, pork and turkey deli meats and spiral sliced hams.

"We are pleased to welcome the Gusto team to the Butterball family and look forward to working closely together," says Rod Brenneman, chief executive officer of Butterball. "With Gusto's 260,000-square-foot facility, we are adding approximately 325 million pounds of further processed capacity to our operations. This additional capacity allows us to support Butterball branded geographic expansion and achieve greater account penetration within current markets. It also affords us the ability to develop and manufacture innovative products for the Butterball brand."

"The Butterball brand remains intensely focused on its core product offering, which is turkey,” Brenneman adds. “The acquisition provides Gusto with the opportunity to benefit from a national logistics and distribution network and further enhance quality and food safety initiatives."

The Gusto Packing Co. leadership team as well as the approximately 500 employees are expected to remain in their current positions.