LITTLE ROCK — Allens Inc. of Siloam Springs will expand plants in Van Buren and Oakfield, N.Y., and has acquired a plant in Fort Worth, the company said in a news release Monday.
Allens is planning a $13.5 million expansion of the company’s canning facility in Van Buren, although no additional jobs were announced. The plant cans sweet potatoes grown by farmers in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi.
The company operates three frozen vegetable plants in upstate New York and will spend $2.2 million to expand the Oakfield location with canned vegetable and dry-pack bean operations, it said in the release.
The Fort Worth plant is a former ConAgra Foods facility that packed ranchstyle beans. The 200,000 square-foot plant also will serve as a strategic distribution center in that region, with $4.7 million in improvements by 2011, according to the release.
Allens says it is the largest privately held vegetable company in the United States with 12 plants in Arkansas, Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, New York and Wisconsin.