Posted on Thu, Sep. 14, 2006

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Beans plant to shut its doors

By JIM FUQUAY

STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER

FORT WORTH — The Ranch Style Beans plant that has perched on the eastern edge of downtown Fort Worth since 1913 will close next year when owner ConAgra Foods opens a new facility in north Fort Worth, the company said Thursday.

The Omaha-based agricultural giant said it will consolidate manufacturing currently done at six U.S. plants at the new Fort Worth facility in the city’s Railhead Industrial Park, just east of Meacham Field.

The company already owns a 420,000-square-foot distribution center in the park and plans to spend about $75 million to add a 550,000-square-foot manufacturing plant there.

About 100 people work at the Ranch Style Beans plant at 1734 E. El Paso St., ConAgra spokesman Chris Kircher said. Those workers can apply for positions at the new facility, expected to open in July and employ about 400 people when it reaches capacity.

On Aug. 29, the Fort Worth City Council granted ConAgra a 90 percent, 10-year tax abatement, worth up to $4.16 million, if it builds the new facility. The abatement calls for ConAgra to maintain at least 400 new full-time workers by the end of 2010, according to the city’s tax-abatement authorization.

Kircher said the new Fort Worth plant will produce canned beans, chili, pasta, tomato sauce and meal kits. He said it is expected to open by July 2007.

Kircher said the moves are part of a plan the company announced in March to reorganize its U.S. manufacturing operations.

It will close the existing Fort Worth plant as well as facilities in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Canada, which, along with other consolidations, is expected to save the company $100 million a year by 2009.

The landmark Ranch Style Beans plant opened in 1913 as Great Western Foods.

It started producing its trademark chili-flavored beans in the late 1920s.

The company was acquired in 1983 by American Home Food Products, which in turn was bought out for $1.3 billion in 1996 by a group that included Dallas investment firm Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst. In 2000, ConAgra bought those operations, then called International Home Foods and including the Ranch Style, Chef Boyardee and Ro-Tel brands, for $2.9 billion.