The former Soft Surroundings warehouse has been converted into a 300,000-square-foot plant that will be the new hub for CHOMPS meat snack manufacturing through Western Smokehouse Partners.

In anticipation of its launch in mid-August, Western Smokehouse Partners invited CHOMPS representatives; state, county and city officials; suppliers; customers and future employees to a private preview of the facility July 23.

Matt Bormann, Western Smokehouse Partners CEO, expects the construction of phase one to be complete in the next few weeks.

“We got the initial team hired and we are getting ready to ramp up everything,” he said.

The existing warehouse needed to be completely retrofitted and reconstructed to meet food safety and production standards.

“The biggest first step was we had to pull out all the concrete for the operating rooms and then put in drainage because we have to do a full clean every single night of the entire plant,” Bormann said.

Western Smokehouse Partners is less than a year away from opening phase two as it finishes cooler paneling and configuring electricity for the refrigeration units.

“It’s just really extending the rooms we have into bigger rooms and getting new equipment in, but CHOMPS and Western (Smokehouse Partners) have already agreed on extending the contract to cover off on new volumes so we can really kind of grow this business,” Bormann said.

He added that by the end of phase two, he expects anywhere from 320 to 350 employees in the Mexico plant where they will produce 1.5 million meat sticks per day.

Western Smokehouse Partners officials will have seven plants including three new builds this year. They have also completed seven expansions, but no matter how fast they build, they cannot outbuild the industry.

“It has been very exciting to grow,” Bormann said. “We just wanted to just let the industry grow, allow it to reach its potential and we are really only at the midpoint of the journey. We still have plenty of room to grow; we still have bigger ambitions to go even larger and continue to create opportunities for people.”

Bormann is from Jacksonville, Illinois, but he has lived in Columbia for the last seven years and even though Mexico isn’t his hometown, he feels like it is.

“I think it’s going to be a great thing for Mexico,” Bormann said. “I think it’s a town where a lot of people leave every day for jobs and head to Columbia, head to Jefferson City, head to Fulton and we are going to allow them to have a good opportunity, a good career, here in a growing company and not have to travel far.”