Vital Farms CEO: Community key to choosing Seymour for expansion
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The CEO of Austin, Texas-based Vital Farms says Seymour was chosen for the company’s second egg washing and packing facility after a search of several locations across the Midwest.
The company said last week it would build the facility on a 72-acre site and create more than 150 jobs, though details of the financial investment in the project were not disclosed.
Russell Diez-Canseco said the search was narrowed down to the tri-state area of Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky because of the opportunity to bring more small family farms into its network.
Diez-Canseco told Inside INdiana Business the company took a closer look at specific communities it might want to partner with.
“What really stood out to us—beyond the typical logistics considerations—about Seymour and about Jackson County was just how we were embraced by that community, how engaged the community leaders are,” he said. “I almost got the sense that they were interviewing and vetting us just as much as we were interviewing and vetting them, and I feel like it’s going to be a really terrific long-term partnership.”
The facility, to be known as Egg Central Station Seymour, will be the company’s second facility, behind its location in Springfield, Missouri. At that location, the company brings in eggs from over 300 small family farms, wash and pack them, and then ship them to over 24,000 retailers nationwide.
Diez-Canseco said the specific site in Seymour was attractive particularly because it is shovel-ready.
“We’re pretty fast growing company, and we need to have this facility open and operating by the end of 2026,” he said. “So it was really helpful for us to have some of those utilities and roads already in place so that we could be up and running soon.”
The company plans to break ground in mid-2025, and the facility is expected to be fully operational at the beginning of 2027.
Diez-Canseco said there are several factors in place that gives him confidence the company will find the workforce it needs. Among them is providing full-time positions with full benefits.
“Our facilities have some things that we take for granted in office communities but maybe aren’t so common in manufacturing communities like like air conditioning and heat and windows, so you can actually see daylight when you’re working,” he said. “Some of those things are really important to us, and I think they make a difference for the people that work in our in our plants.”
He also noted how other companies in Seymour have been successful in finding staff members through Jackson County and surrounding areas.
Diez-Canseco said Vital Farms is in the early stages of engaging farmers in the area surrounding Seymour to source eggs that will be brought to the facility.
Vital Farms said the new facility is expected to help generate over $350 million in additional revenue and support roughly 165 family farmers. Diez-Canseco said the company is on track to reaching its goal of $1 billion in total revenue by 2027.