Anchor Ingredients cuts ribbon on Richmond processing facility
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The CEO of Anchor Ingredients says he believes that Richmond will soon become the epicenter of the premium pet food market.
The company, headquartered in Fargo, North Dakota, marked the grand opening of its $40 million transload and ingredient processing facility in the Wayne County city on Monday.
Anchor Ingredients processes and supplies ingredients for the pet food industry, and Al Yablonski says the city and state have done a “phenomenal job” attracting pet food manufacturing to the region.
Yablonski told Inside INdiana Business that he’s excited to support the pet food manufacturers in the area.
“Our whole idea with building this facility here is to solidify Richmond as the future hub and global hotspot for premium pet food manufacturing,” he said. “In order for these brands to be successful, they need to ensure that they have enough raw materials to feed their facilities and produce the premium food. In order for them to be successful, they have to have the right supply chain partners in place, and we’re determined to be the number one choice for all the brands here in the region.”
Anchor Ingredients broke ground on its facility in Richmond’s Midwest Industrial Park in June 2023. The plant sits on a 35-acre site, which Yablonski said gives the company room for future expansion.
The company has hired 35 employees for the new facility, and Yablonski said he was “unbelievably pleasantly surprised” at the ease with which Anchor was able to find its workforce.
“The caliber of employee and the number of employees that we’ve been able to attract to this facility in Richmond, has been been phenomenal,” he said. “We have a really strong, talented team, both from a leadership perspective all the way down to an operator level.”
He said the company looks forward to growing its employee base as operations continue to expand.
Anchor Ingredients is just the latest company in the pet food industry to set up roots in Richmond. The city is home to companies such as Purina, Hill’s Pet Nutrition, and Blue Buffalo, which is nearing completion of a $200 million expansion.
About 50 miles away, Diamond Pet Foods is building a massive, $260 million manufacturing and distribution center in Rushville.
Yablonski credits local leadership and the success of the longstanding companies in the area for the region’s recent industry growth.
“Naturally, a lot of those brands’ peers have seen the momentum and the strength and the labor force and the shipping point—being able to access the northeast and southeast markets from Richmond, not only the facilities that are here, but the facilities that are planned to be here and within a 50-mile radius of Richmond,” he said. “We’re big believers that this will be the future kind of epicenter of premium pet food.”