Tyson Fresh Meats, Springdale, Ark., broke ground on a new case-ready beef and pork processing facility in Eagle Mountain City, Utah, as part of its newly formed Portioned Protein Innovations team.

The $300 million project is expected to initially create more than 800 local jobs and expand to 1,200 positions within three years after opening.

The plant will be a case-ready, meat-cutting and packaging operation that converts fresh beef and pork brought in from other locations into steaks, chops, roasts and ground beef. The product is then placed in trays, weighed and labeled before being shipped to retailers for sale in grocery store meat cases.

Tyson Fresh Meats is the beef and pork unit of Tyson Foods, Inc.

“We are excited to join the Eagle Mountain City community, and in addition to bringing jobs to the area, we look forward to being both a supportive community and business partner,” says Steve Stouffer, president of Tyson Fresh Meats. “Our purpose, raising the world’s expectations for how much good food can do, motivates us to be engaged and positively contribute in our communities. We’re ready to get involved and be a part of what makes Eagle Mountain City a great place to live.”

The case-ready plant will be located in the Pole Canyon development, and is expected to open as soon as 2021.

“After a great deal of planning and working in partnership with the developer, the state and local government, in particular Eagle Mountain City, it’s exciting to finally break ground on our new case-ready plant,” says Nate Hodne, senior vice president, Portioned Protein Innovations. “The addition of this facility allows us to expand Tyson’s ability to meet growing demand from our customers for portioned and convenient meat products their consumers are demanding.”