Meat Snack Co. Archer to Double Processing Footprint with New Vernon, California, Plant
Meat snack company Archer will open a second manufacturing facility in the Los Angeles area, moving into a portion of the former Farmer John processing complex in Vernon, Calif., and renovating a 140,000-sq.-ft. facility to meet the demand for its meat sticks.
In a release sent to Food Processing, Eugene Kang, founder and CEO of Archer, said the need was clear after the “explosive growth of our meat stick products,” and that expanding in Los Angeles was an intentional choice. Archer reports its 90% year-over-year sales increase, and 187.4% meat stick sales increase demonstrated the need for a major move.
The building that Archer is moving into was part of the longtime home of the Farmer John processing complex, which Smithfield Foods shut down in February 2023, then sold to global industrial property firm Goodman Group in the summer of 2023. The legacy processing plant, which featured a relatively well-known mural painted on its exterior, and numerous surrounding buildings on the main site on Vernon Avenue were demolished in January 2024. To be clear, Archer is moving into two buildings on a portion of the Farmer John site that did not meet the wrecking ball’s wrath, and is located at 3855 S. Soto Street, across the street from where the muraled plant stood.
In addition to the new facility, Archer recently announced new product launches and new distribution to help meet the growing demand. The company launched three new varieties of its beef sticks a week and a half ago, adding Pepperoni Style, Beef Taco and Prime Rib Style to its lineup. Archer is hopeful these extensions will help it reach its $300 million sales goal in 2025, as relayed in the release on the new products.
The company expects the Vernon facility to be fully operational in early September 2025, and it will produce meat sticks exclusively while the San Bernadino, Calif., plant will continue to produce jerky and meat sticks. Adding Vernon to the roster will nearly double Archer’s overall manufacturing capacity, the company noted, and it will create more than 200 new jobs for the local community.
