The acquisition of the factory was agreed in November 2015, but details regarding how much Mountain States Lamb paid JBS for the meat processing facility were only made public on Tuesday 26 January.
The plant was previously under the ownership of JBS USA Holdings, a subsidy of the São Paulo-based company JBS, which claims to be the “largest meat processing company in the world”.
End-to-end ability
The acquisition of the JBS plant gives members of MSLC the ability to manage the end-to-end production of their lamb meat, from slaughtering to processing and packaging to distribution.
Last year JBS was involved in a number of takeovers, including the acquisition of Moy Park and Cargill Pork, and it was unusual to see the company selling rather than buying businesses.
“The US lamb business was truly a niche category for JBS USA, which presented limited opportunities for growth,” said JBS spokesman Cameron Bruett in November.
“We were only involved in the slaughter side of the business and did not fabricate or further process lamb. We think it’s a good transaction for both parties and Mountain States will have the opportunity to adopt a fully integrated model.”
MSLC is a US-based body of 140 lamb producers who raise their flocks in the mountains and open plains of western America.