Freshpet to Open Third Pet Food Production Facility

Pet food manufacturer Freshpet Inc. announced Tuesday that it plans to open its third Freshpet Kitchen pet food production facility in Ennis, TX. The company said the new location will “significantly” increase the company’s capacity and create about 400 new jobs. 

“Our third Freshpet Kitchen is in the perfect location to help us drive new innovation while making our food in a way that’s best for pets, people, and the planet,” said Fresh Pet Chief Executive Officer Billy Cyr in a press release. “We wanted the home of our next Kitchen to be a place that we would be proud to send our employees to live and work and Ennis blew us away with the compelling vision of their leadership, the ongoing investments they have made to their infrastructure, and the availability of top-notch talent to support our growth.”

Under the first phase of the project, Freshpet will open a 400,000-sq-ft facility in Ennis by 2022. Last June, the company started work on a new Freshpet Kitchen facility in Bethlehem, PA. 

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“That [Pennsylvania] expansion will take the company’s capacity to an excess of $500 million, and the new facility in Ennis, TX will take the total capacity to over $1 billion by the time it is fully built out,” the company said in the release.

Freshpet produces fresh, refrigerated food products for cats and dogs. The company states that it has about doubled its business every three years since 2009. 

Rival pet food maker Nestle Purina revealed plans this month to invest $140 million to add several new processing and packaging lines for dry pet foods at its production facility in Clinton, IA. The company said it will “significantly increase” its capacity of kibble-based products at the Iowa site in response to increased consumer demand. 

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