Lakeside Packers Expanding

NEW YORK - May 13/05 - SNS -- Lakeside Packers of Brooks, Alberta will begin increasing its slaughter capacity starting in the middle of June, says the chief executive of Tyson Foods, which owns Lakeside.

The change is the result of a $17 million plant expansion project, which has been underway since last fall. The Lakeside plant has been operating at maximum capacity for much of the past year and a half because of record-large Canadian cattle supplies.

The plant's capital investment has involved expanding the plant's beef carcass coolers and streamlining parts of the beef slaughter operation. The changes will increase Lakeside's beef slaughter capacity from approximately 3,800 cattle per day to 4,700. While some aspects of the project will not be finished until fall, enough have been completed that plant officials expect to begin gradually ramping up production next month.

The specific timing will largely be driven by the company's ability to hire additional workers. The expansion is expected to create as many as 300 additional jobs, eventually increasing the plant's workforce to 2,700 Team Members.

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