New Owners Look Closer at Timeline to Re-Open Former Simply Essentials Plant in Charles City

Representatives of the new ownership group taking over the former Simply Essentials chicken processing plant in Charles City are in town this week.

Pure Prairie Farms Vice-President of Strategic Initiatives Anita Janssen says the company is scheduled to conduct two days of planning sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday to see how close the facility could be to opening sometime this spring.

Janssen notes that while company officials toured the facilities in mid-December and things looked good, this week begins a “deep dive” to fully determine the status of the plant that has been closed since August of 2019. Janssen says that will take some time as will building up the number of people they will employ.

Janssen says they’ll begin taking applications for employment once a start date has been established.