JBS to Purchase Ankeny Facility to Make Ready-to-Eat Bacon and Sausage

By Cami Koons

JBS USA announced Wednesday it had reached an agreement to purchase an Ankeny, Iowa, facility, previously owned by Hy-Vee, to build out a ready-to-eat bacon and sausage facility. 

According to a press release from the company, the 186,000-square-foot facility will be the largest of its kind in the JBS portfolio and will create approximately 400 jobs, once fully operational.

The purchase and required facility enhancements represent a $100 million investment, according to the release. The plant is expected to be operational by mid-2026 following capital investments and construction. 

The facility was previously the Fresh Commissary, which made sandwiches, salads, bakery items, and take-and-bake pizzas for Hy-Vee stores. Hy-Vee announced in April it was closing the facility that employed more than 300 people.

JBS plans to hire employees who previously worked at the facility under Hy-Vee, “due to the type of work,” the press release said. 

JBS is also planning a sausage-making facility in nearby Perry. With the two new locations, JBS will have five plants in Iowa. Other plants are in Council Bluffs, Marshalltown, and Ottumwa.

“This facility in Ankeny will not only expand our prepared foods business in the U.S., it will also benefit from synergies and strategic supply of product from our other plants in the region,” Rick Foster, JBS’s U.S. head of prepared foods, said in a statement. 

According to the release, the Perry location will supply raw sausage to the Ankeny facility to be cooked and packaged as ready-to-eat. 

Wesley Batista Filho, CEO of JBS USA, said the company is “proud to grow our operations in Iowa.” 

JBS also operates a ready-to-eat bacon facility in Moberly, Missouri, and said there is “increasing consumer demand” for the ready-to-eat pork products. 

“Today’s announcement aligns with our long-term strategy of offering more value-added and prepared foods products to meet the needs of our customers and consumers,” Batista Filho said in the release.

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