Slim Jim manufacturer seeks permit for new $2.5M freezer

Credit: Thomas Gnau/Staff

Credit: Thomas Gnau/Staff

In recent years, Conagra Brands has applied for a total of nearly $15.5 million in expansions at its Troy plant.

In September 2015, the food and snack producer applied for a Miami County permit for a $13 million expansion of its 801 Dye Mill Road smokehouse.

More recently, the company has sought a permit to add nearly $2.5 million of equipment to its local plant, according to October commercial building permit records.

The amount in question is meant to replace a 25-year-old freezer, a company representative said.

The Conagra Brands plant in Troy produces about a billion Slim Jim meat sticks each year.

RELATED: Tour the Troy home of the Slim Jims.

Nebraska-based Conagra Foods’ facility in Troy also makes Max frozen pizzas and Duke’s meat snacks. The Slim Jim brand represents about six percent of the company’s total profits and generates $200 million in sales annually.

 

The Troy plant became home to the Slim Jims after a fire gutted much of a plant in Garner, N.C., in 2009.

Slim Jim production moved to Troy, which was already home to some of the company’s baked goods line. And there it stayed. (The North Carolina plant was closed in 2011.)

PHOTOSHow Slim Jims are made in Troy 

Today, the Troy plant has about 750 employees. In the past four years, Conagra invested more than $30 million into the plant.

Questions about the recent building permit application were sent to a Conagra representative Wednesday.

Meat snack sticks are a $1.37 billion business, according to Nielsen. The broader meat snack category, which includes sticks and jerky, is a $2.9 billion business.

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