SK Food Group Breaks Ground on New $205M Plant

SK Food Group has broke ground on its Cleveland, TN, manufacturing facility with a celebration on Tuesday, Sept. 25, reported local news WDEF News 12. The custom food manufacturer announced that it would be building a new 525,000-sq.-ft production facility in Cleveland back in January of this year.

The site will be constructed in three phases by the Tippmann Group and will eventually span nearly a quarter of a mile, the news report stated.

“Once operations become running, we are going to have a full end to end operation with a receiving end through manufacturing, pack off, and shipping at the other end, it is going to be a complete linear process,” said Dustin Dixon, president of SK Food Group.

SK Food Group's location was a process started 14 years ago in a meeting with TDOT, authorities stated.

TN State Representative (R) Dan Howell commented about the ceremony on Facebook, "A great morning for the official groundbreaking of SK Food Group in Spring Creek Industrial Park in Bradley County. SKFG is the nation’s largest supplier of hand-held foods and is building its newest state-of-the-art facility here. When build-out is complete the highly automated local plant will provide 850 high paying jobs plus benefits including; on site child care, a dog park for truck drivers, and outdoor dining."

“The state said, ‘Well you’ve got to have something, a bird in hand of some sort if we’re ever going to build that interchange.’ So, once we had the park bought, they no longer had any excuses. We got the interchange and we’re seeing what is beginning to happen,” said Bradley County Mayor D. Gary Davis.