JBS USA will purchase new equipment for a production facility it plans to buy in Ankeny and redesign and expand some areas of the plant, a company spokesman told the Business Record.

“The facility previously produced different types of food products,” Hailey Fishel, a spokesperson for JBS USA, wrote in an email. “We will be investing in new equipment, expanding some areas and designing the plant in a way that allows us to produce ready-to-eat sausage and bacon products.”

Last week, food processing giant JBS USA announced it would spend $100 million to acquire and convert and expand the former Hy-Vee plant at 4150 S.E. Delaware Ave. in Ankeny.

Hy-Vee produced grab-and-go items like sandwiches and take-and-bake pizzas at the facility, which opened in 2018. More than 330 people worked at the 186,000-square-foot facility when Hy-Vee closed it in June.

Fishel wrote that the shuttered Hy-Vee plant’s location was attractive to JBS USA, which is headquartered in Greeley, Colo.

JBS USA operates production facilities in Council Bluffs, Marshalltown and Ottumwa and expects to break ground on a fourth plant in Perry later this year.

“We like doing business in Iowa and the Ankeny plant presented another opportunity to do that,” Fishel wrote. The Ankeny facility is “strategically located to be able to receive raw material from our other plants, and leveraging an existing facility allows us to meet increased customer demand for these types of products more quickly.”

Hogs will not be slaughtered at the Ankeny facility, Fishel wrote.

“This site is focused on production and further processing to create prepared foods,” Fishel wrote. “Raw material will be sourced from other JBS pork production facilities in the region, like the new plant being built in Perry, for example. This approach allows us to expand capacity while maintaining efficiency and quality across our supply chain.”

JBS has said it wants to hire people who previously worked at the facility for Hy-Vee.

Fishel did not respond to a question about how much workers would be paid at the new JBS facility, which is expected to hire 400 people.

Average JBS Foods salaries at its plant in Moberly, Mo. range from $16 an hour for food preparation workers to $34.65 an hour for production workers, according to the job search engine Indeed.com. The Moberly plant opened in 2021 and produces ready-to-eat meat products, similar to what will be made in the Ankeny facility. Average pay for salaried jobs at the Moberly plant range from $50,000 a year for a food safety specialist to $96,164 annually for a maintenance supervisor, according to Indeed.com.

JBS USA will offer its Hometown Strong and Better Futures programs in Ankeny, the company said in a news release. The Better Futures program provides tuition-free community college for team members and their children.