October 19, 2024
Local News

New ADM flour mill in Mendota to employ 30-40 people

By Ali Braboy
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James Harper plant manager at the ADM flour mill in Mendota leads a tour of the new facility. The flour mill will produce 3 million pounds of flower per day. The Mendota facility, will have the ability to grind soft and hard wheat varieties and to unload 110-car shuttle trains. The flour from the mill will be used in baking for bakeries, pizza restaurants and other food service companies. (Scott Anderson)

MENDOTA – North America’s largest flour mill now resides in Mendota.

The new Archer Daniels Midland Flour Mill can produce more than 3 million pounds of flour per day and will employ 30 to 40 people.

“We’re proud to be here, to work here, to live here and to give back here,” said Kevin Like, president of North American Flour Milling at ADM Co.

Construction started in June 2017, and north of 200 people attended a ribbon cutting ceremony Wednesday celebrating the mill’s opening.

The facility can mill spring, winter and soft wheat varieties plus two types of whole wheat. Production started around Aug. 1.

“It means a lot to Mendota,” said Emily McConville, Mendota’s city clerk and economic development director. “We’ve had some bad news in the last couple of months.”

The opening comes on the heels of the upcoming closing of Del Monte, an announcement made last month that 111 full-time and 362 seasonal employees would be eliminated.

ADM, one of the world’s largest agricultural processors and food ingredient providers, already had an existing ADM grain transfer facility in Mendota with a rail loop initially constructed by Fasco Mills before ADM bought the local company in 2007.

ADM had an aging facility in the Chicago area, and the company needed a new location to better serve its customers, Like said.

“This is a big flour-consuming area, so it was natural to choose to hold onto our existing grain terminal, utilizing some of the same assets, utilizing supplier relationships, utilizing the 110-car rail unloading capability of this facility as well as the storage,” Like said.

The school district hopes the new facility will have a positive impact on student enrollment, Superintendent Jeff Prusator said.

“We’re excited about what the city has done to bring the flour plant to Mendota,” he said. “We think it will be a great enhancement to the city.”