Schwan's Company announces plans to open new food production facility in Sioux Falls

Schwan's Co. purchased a 142-acre site at Foundation Park, near Sioux Falls, S.D., for a 700,000-square-foot Asian-style food production facility.

The company announced plans in 2021 for a new plant in Sioux Falls, which is projected to add more than 600 new employees. The company also plans to open a regional office in downtown Sioux Falls to support its operations at the new manufacturing facility. Initial plans for the regional office include adding 50 jobs, potentially growing to 100 jobs once the production facility is complete. 

The new manufacturing facility will produce Asian-style foods, primarily for Schwan's Korean food brand bibigo. The plant is expected to produce a range of Asian-style meals, sides, snacks and appetizers in the shelf-stable and frozen categories once the plant is complete. The new manufacturing campus also will include a warehouse and distribution center, shipping and receiving docks, and office space.

"We thank all state and local officials in South Dakota for helping us make great progress on this project, which will ultimately help us meet the needs of our retail and food service customers," Schwan's outgoing CEO Dimitrios P. Smyrnios, said in the announcement. "This project will create significant new production capacity for Schwan's, enabling us to continue to support our market-share-leading bibigo brand and drive future innovation and growth in the Asian food category."

"Our investment in this world-class Asian-style food plant in South Dakota will help us strengthen our position in one of the fastest-growing food categories in the United States," said incoming CEO Brian Schiegg in a press release. "We look forward to continuing our work with state and local officials to build a facility that will benefit the residents of South Dakota as well as our family of businesses."

"The U.S. market continues to deliver high growth for CJ Foods, and the ability to continue to scale our portfolio of products to meet the growing consumer demand is vitally important to our strategy. This facility will enable us to further accelerate the growth of K-Food and other Asian cuisines," said CJ Foods CEO Minsok Pak in the press announcement. Schwan's Co. is a subsidiary of South Korea-based CJ Foods.