PROGRESSIVE PROCESSING LLC

PROGRESSIVE PROCESSING LLC. Plans by Hormel Foods, the Austin, Minnesota company, to build a plant in Dubuque to produce the company's microwavable Hormel Compleats line were made in 2008. The facility started operations in January, 2010.

A formal grand opening for the over $80 million facility was held on March 30, 2010 for state and local officials. At the time, ninety positions had been filled. This was about half of the 180 to 200 jobs the company expected to be filled locally. The plant had enough room to add production lines which could boost employment to three hundred people. The Dubuque plant was the first new production facility the company had constructed in more than twenty-five years.

On January 14, 2014, Hormel, the GREATER DUBUQUE DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION, and city officials announced that the Dubuque facility had been chosen for the first phase of a major expansion project. Progressive Processing would be the home of the production of Hormel's bacon-topping products. (1) This addition would result in $36 million in modifications to the Dubuque plant. (2)

In February, the company announced that a second phase of expansion involving the production of Spam would come to Dubuque. (3) Production of bacon toppings began in June, 2014 with Hormel beginning its production of Spam Single products in November. (4) In less than a year after Hormel announced plans to expand operations in Dubuque, an additional eighty-seven employees had been hired with an anticipated dozen more in the future. (5)

In September, 2019 officials of company announced a $13 million expansion of Progressive Processing and plans to hire an additional 58 employees. Involved in the expansion was adding capacity to its local Spam production by relocating a line from Fremont, Nebraska. Of the 58 new positions, 37 would be production associates earning a starting wage of $15.92 per hour. (6)

Officials of Hormel announced in January, 2022 their plans to made a $43 million investment in its Dubuque plant and create thirty-eight more jobs. New equipment was to be used to increase capacity for Spam production. The plant aso produced canned chicken and bacon bits. There were 440 employees. (7)

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Source:

1. Jacobson, Ben. "City Brings Home the Bacon," Telegraph Herald, January 15, 2014, p. 1

2. Habegger, Becca. "Dubuque's Hormel Expansion a Go," KCRG. Online: http://www.kwwl.com/story/24447821/2014/01/14/dubuque-hormel-expansion-a-go-will-bring-nearly-100-jobs

3. Montgomery, Jeff. "Hormel Expansion Fuels Local Job Growth in 2014," Telegraph Herald, January 3, 2015, p. 1A

4. Ibid.

5. Ibid.

6. Montgomery, Jeff, "Hormel Seeks to Add 59 Dubuque Jobs," Telegraph Herald, September 14, 2019, p. 1A

7. Kruse, John, "Subsidiary of Hormel Eyes Local Expansion," Telegraph Herald, January 15, 2022, p. 1A