Pork processor Clemens Food Group today (Feb. 26) broke ground on a $228 million smoked meats and cooked sausage processing facility in its home town of Hatfield, Pa. It should create 87 full-time jobs as it comes on line over the next three years.

Clemens seleced construction firm Gray to design and build the new 308,000-sq.-ft. expansion to its Hatfield campus after partnering on the company’s first greenfield operation in Coldwater, Mich. Clemens received incentives from the Pennsylvania Dept. of Community and Economic Development and a $2.5 million Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) grant.

Clemens Food Group was founded in Hatfield, Pa., and is a sixth-generation, family-owned business. It claims to be the fifth largest pork processor in the U.S. with such brands as Hatfield, Farm Promise and Premium Reserve. A vertically integrated processor, it has a network of more than 25 farms throughout Indiana, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.