OLATHE, Kan. — The mystery retailer behind plans for a multi-million dollar beef processing facility in Olathe has been revealed.
Walmart announced Tuesday it will open it’s first-ever owned and operated case-ready beef facility in 2025. Kansas City based McCownGordon will be building the facility. They work with Walmart often.
“It’s going to be Walmart associates that are the employees that work at this facility.” McCownGordon Construction Market Leader Justin Hamilton said in an interview with FOX4 Tuesday. “That’s the first of its kind from a beef standpoint. Historically they’ve bought them from other companies and just received that product and put it on their store shelves.”
City documents show 1918 LLC, a company associated with Walmart, intends to create a 320,000 square foot beef processing and packaging facility near the northwest corner of 167th St. and 169 Highway. Walmart workers will package beef there, and once it leaves that site, it will go right to the store shelves.
“So, when you and I as consumers go to Walmart to buy the steaks that we’re going to grill for the weekend, it’s coming out, and it’s in the package ready for the stores across our metro area and the Midwest to put on the shelf,” Hamilton continued.
Walmart plans to break ground on the new facility later this year.
“At Walmart, enhancing quality is integral to how we innovate,” David Baskin, Senior Vice President, Deli, Meat & Seafood at Walmart, said in a press release. “Once opened, our case-ready beef facility in Olathe will mark an important next step in our journey to create an end-to-end Angus beef supply chain, ensuring our customers have access to the high-quality meats they expect at the everyday low prices they rely on.”
The new facility will take over production of Choice Beef cuts for Walmart stores in Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Once complete the packing plant is expected to create approximately 667 new jobs over the next 10 years. According to city documents the average starting salary for both skilled and unskilled workers would be approximately $35,500 and starting salaries for management would be approximately $94,500.
“They were looking at multiple sites across the country and across the Midwest,” Olathe Chamber of Commerce CEO Tim McKee said in an interview with FOX4 Tuesday.
McKee’s group was working with one of Walmart’s consultants to try to get them to build in the city. McKee says this is a great day for the city, Johnson County, and Kansas as a whole because new jobs are being created.
“The state has been losing population, losing talent,” he continued. “Hopefully this helps stem some of that loss and provides opportunity for kids getting out of college and the whole metro with these new jobs coming to us.”
