Sustainable Beef plant opens in North Platte, aiming to boost local economy and revolutionize beef industry

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. - A new cattle processing facility in North Platte is set to create a sustainable local supply chain that will bring in an estimated one billion dollars annually once it is fully-operational.

Sustainable Beef's plant boasts an impressive 560,000 square feet and will house around 850 new employees- more than 1,200 people attended Monday's ribbon-cutting event.

The plant was constructed in 30 months after first being announced back in March of 2021, and the concept for the plant was formed years earlier by cattlemen in West Central Nebraska where they further collaborated with local investors and eventually partnered with Walmart for their distribution.

Officials added that the project seemed improbable at times, but were able to persevere due to lots of community support and collaboration in order to get it accomplished.

CEO of Sustainable Beef LLC David Briggs said "At the time we did this, there was a lot of interest in the industry to increase what's called shackle space or more capacity. There were about 15 of these projects announced but this is the only project that actually occurred, so that alone shows how rare and how hard these projects are to get done."

Briggs added that the new plant is a huge win for cattle producers and that it will bring a huge economic boost to the local economy.

"Ernie Goss from Creighton University did a study for us, our economic impact study, and he estimates $1.2 billion a year every single year for the city of North Platte. And he estimates there will be over 2,000 new employees in North Platte because of this addition of economic activity," said Briggs.

Sustainable Beef will begin hiring line workers in May, with the facility beginning operations later that month.

Officials said it will take several months to become fully operational, but that locals will soon be able to notice the positive financial and agriculture benefits.