Pet food maker Blue Buffalo plans to expand its Heartland Pet Food manufacturing site in Joplin, MO, Missouri Governor Eric Greitens announced by press release Thursday.

“Blue Buffalo’s expansion of our state of the art manufacturing facility in Joplin reflects our ongoing commitment to the people, the city, and the state of Missouri. With this expansion, we will be further increasing our internal production capacity. We are very proud to continue to create jobs and to being an upstanding partner in the community,” the company’s chairman and founder, Bill Bishop, said in a statement.

Constructing a new 112,000-sq-ft building at the site, 46 new jobs are expected to be created as a result of the project as a new pet food line becomes operational. The additional space will provide room for new pet food manufacturing equipment, the release said.

The company’s Joplin 416,000-sq-ft facility was the company’s first U.S. manufacturing site. Blue Buffalo expects to complete the expansion in early 2018.

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