Prestage Foods of SC & Gray Honored with ProFood World Manufacturing Innovation Award

Prestage Farms is a family-owned business, established in 1983, that creates quality pork and turkey products. The company and its affiliates process 1.5 billion pounds of turkey and pork annually, employ nearly 3,000 associates, and contract with over 450 farm families. Prestage Foods of South Carolina, located at Camden, is the newest addition to the Prestage family of companies.

For this 295,000 s.f. greenfield facility, Gray delivered a wide range of design, construction, engineering, and equipment services.

This highly technical facility includes the only air-chill turkey processing model in the Western Hemisphere—an advancement from traditional water-chill processing. This unique model greatly reduces the risk of cross-contamination and eliminates the need to introduce chemicals such as chlorine into food-grade processes, which can be absorbed and retained inside the meat.

“This Prestage Foods facility is a testament to modern food & beverage manufacturing capabilities,” says Brian Jones, president & CEO, Gray Construction. “The level of ingenuity, creativity, and sophistication packed into this operation makes for a highly effective and efficient plant that Gray is proud to have played a role.”

“We came in with an innovation strategy for this plant, and Gray embraced our vision as well as our input for specific design elements,” says Ron Prestage, president of Prestage Foods of South Carolina. “Up front, the team at Gray recognized this was going to be a unique project as we sought to take advantage of every opportunity for automation and increased operational efficiencies. They were a good fit for our family business, and this project certainly benefitted from our combined commitment to quality and innovation.”

“The close relationship with Prestage really was the difference maker for this project. Together, we worked through every milestone and formed one, cohesive team to produce an incredible project,” says Brett Goode, executive vice president, food & beverage market.

This facility also features a shackle-chain system that moves the birds throughout the facility. The system features a staggering 13 miles of shackle chain, by far the largest in the poultry industry, and can process 48,000 birds per day.

The new facility created nearly 300 local jobs.

About Gray:

Consistently ranked among the top industrial contractors in the U.S. and internationally, Gray focuses on the following markets for domestic and international customers: Food & Beverage, Manufacturing, Automotive, Distribution, Mission Critical, and Commercial, with nearly 30 offices across North America, Europe, and Asia.

Founded in 1960, Gray’s dedicated team operates cohesively to deliver scalable solutions from process improvement to plant design and construction. Our experienced teams offer unique service platforms to help you implement smart manufacturing initiatives, maximize ROI through process improvement, provide a streamlined source for system design and integration, and deliver top-tier custom contract-manufacturing and fabrication, all while delivering unmatched precision and partnership to some of the world’s most sophisticated organizations.

For more information on Gray, visit gray.com and follow us @Gray.

About Prestage:

The Prestage Family of companies is a trusted supplier of quality turkey and pork. Founded in 1983 by Bill and Marsha Prestage, we take pride in being a third-generation, family-owned food and agriculture business. Celebrating our 40th anniversary in business this year, we produce and process turkey and pork with a dedicated team of employees and farm families across the South, the Southeast, and the Midwest.