American Fresh Foods Expands

Thomas County Chamber of Commerce Business Focus
Sunday, October 10, 2004

County Commissioner Rev. I.L. Mullins, from left; Sen. Tim Golden; Dr. Freida Hill, president of Southwest Georgia Technical College; Mayor Rick Singletary; Rep. Wallace Sholar; Assistant City Manager Steve Sykes; Dave Miller of American Foodservice; Rick Fahle of Fairbanks Farms; Barry Renninger of American Foodservice; Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond; Chamber President Don Sims; Sen. John Bulloch; City Councilman David Lewis and Mayor Pro Tem Earl Williams gather for the groundbreaking of American Fresh Foods on Sept. 28.

American Fresh Foods LP, based in Forth Worth, Texas, recently announced the location of a new ground beef products manufacturing facility in Thomasville. A 75,000 square foot planned facility will be constructed on a 14-acre site adjacent to the Americold Freezer facility on Thomasville’s west bypass. The plant will initially manufacture case ready and other fresh ground beef products for retail grocery and foodservice markets in the Southeastern United States.

American Fresh Foods is a joint venture between American Foodservice Corp., King of Prussia, Penn., and Fairbank Farms, located in Ashville, N.Y. The new state-of-the-art plant anticipates creating 100 jobs over the next three years. The Thomasville location offers American Fresh Foods the opportunity to supply its customers in the Southeast with the safest and highest quality ground beef products possible. “We are fortunate to have the leadership team in our community that can recruit industries of the caliber of American Fresh Foods,” said Don Sims, President of the Thomasville-Thomas County Chamber of Commerce, “and we are fortunate to have the statewide development team that made this success possible.” Construction will begin in the fall, and the plant is expected to be in production in the spring 2005.