Archer Daniels Midland Company (NYSE: ADM) announced today that it is realigning its flour milling footprint in the U.S. as its new, high-capacity mill in Mendota, Illinois, nears opening. In the coming months, the company will end production at its Nokomis flour mill in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and its flour mill Salina, Kansas. In addition, the company continues to plan to end production at its wheat mill in Chicago when the Mendota mill opens later this year.

“We are continuing to see strong demand for flour in the Midwest, and the changes we are announcing today, along with the opening of our new, state-of-the-art mill in Mendota later this year, will perfectly position ADM Milling to meet customer needs throughout the region,” said Chris Cuddy, president of ADM’s Carbohydrate Solutions business. “The three facilities we are closing in Minnesota, Kansas and Illinois are all more than a century old, and despite the great work of our teams in each location, the age of those mills significantly constrains our operations. The growth investment we’ve made in our new Mendota facility will offer the efficiency, variety and flexibility that our customers deserve, and this realignment will ensure both we and our customers harvest the full benefits of that investment.”

The Mendota facility, which will have the ability to grind soft and hard wheat varieties and to unload 110-car shuttle trains, is on target to open in the second half of 2019. The facility will have a daily milling capacity of 30,000 cwts. The Minneapolis, Salina and Chicago mills that are being shut down have a combined daily capacity of 29,000 cwts.

“Mendota is one of many important growth investments we’re making in ADM Milling,” Cuddy added. “We’re investing in improvements to our Atkinson mill in Minneapolis – which will continue to operate – and we just celebrated the opening of our modernized, state-of-the-art mill in Enid, Oklahoma late last year.”

ADM Milling is one of the world’s largest flour millers, with multiple wheat flour mills in the U.S. as well as in Canada, the Caribbean, Central America and the United Kingdom.