Sara Lee opens sliced meats plant

Sara Lee Corp., Downers Grove, Ill., said it opened its $140 million-plus sliced meats plant in Kansas City, Kan. Officials said the facility will process sliced deli meats for Sara Lee under the Hillshire Farm® and Sara Lee® Deli brands.

“We are proud to celebrate our new Kansas City facility and showcase the state-of-the-art features that make it an industry leader in processing,” said CJ Fraleigh, chief executive officer, Sara Lee North America. “This investment underlines our commitment to our core protein category and provides us with the ability to deliver to our customers and consumers the safest, highest quality, most cost-effective product possible.”

Sara Lee said the Kansas City operation utilizes robotic systems and allows “no-touch” processing from the initial raw meat phase through the finished product. Due to engineering processes, the facility processing time is reduced by 50 percent compared to conventional manufacturing and requires half of the employees normally required to operate such a facility.