Triumph Foods factory awaits robot revolution

US pork processor Triumph Foods, which is expanding its facility in St Joseph, Missouri, is to install robotic packers at the site.

The meat processor plans to expand its factory by around 12,000 sq ft, although it is unclear how long construction will last.

It is also unknown if any jobs are at risk from automation being brought in to, in Triumph’s words, “reduce manual handling of finished products”.

Mark Campbell, CEO, said in a statement that the build-up of the decade-old plant would enable the business to quicken its ability to get meat out of the factory and onto the road.

Enhanced capabilities

This project is representative of the company’s continued commitment to implement innovative solutions aimed at improving customer service, upgrading ergonomics and enhancing our capability to the produce and distribute new products to the market,” Campbell said in a press statement.

The expansion also means more storage space for Triumph’s strategic partner, Seaboard Foods. Additional space should help the firm sell more value-added pork in retail and foodservice. Separately, the two companies recently opened a new pork processing factory in Iowa, trading as Seaboard Triumph Foods. This is a joint venture shared equally between the two outfits.

Producer-owned Triumph Foods was formed in 2006 and claims to be of the “leading” processors of premium US pork. It has a workforce of over 2,800 and produces somewhere in the region of 1.5 billion pounds of pork per year, with revenue of $1.6bn.