LUFKIN, Texas (AP) -- A Tyler-based beef products company is moving into a vacant plant in Lufkin and plans to employ more than 200 people by the end of 2010.
Loggins Culinary announced plans Thursday to move into a facility once used by Armour Eckrich Inc. The food processing company will have about 85 workers when it begins operations later this year.
Armour Eckrich closed its operations in Lufkin in March. It had employed 125 people.
Once the facility is reconfigured, Loggins Culinary plans to start with uncooked, preportioned beef products and move into further processed as well as cooked products, the company said in a news release.
''This is a success story for our entire community,'' Lufkin Mayor Jack Gorden said in a news release. ''Not only does it take an idled and vacant commercial facility and create new jobs, it does it with a 21st-century process that should fare well for the long run.''
Jim Wehmeier, the city's economic development director, said in a story for the online edition of The Lufkin Daily News that the startup should be very quick.
