The mayor of Corwith, Jay Gourley, has a smile on his face when talking about the Hawkeye Pride project under construction south of his community. “This is a big project for our area and something that will be a real benefit for our school district, community and county,” says Gourley. The project is a $90 million egg-laying and processing facility, complete with its own feed mill, being built south of town in Hancock County.

 

The Hawkeye Pride project took shape as new ownership, renovation and start-up operations of a food-processing plant in nearby Britt began under the ownership of the Primera Foods group. Much of the liquid eggs from the Hawkeye Pride facility will supply the Primera Foods plant in Britt. Completion of the first phase of the project, including 3 million layers, a feed mill, an egg-breaking facility, will be completed in the summer of 2011.  The project will ultimately employ up to 80 people.

Prairie Energy will provide power to Hawkeye Pride and assisted with the selection of the Corwith site, which included Corn Belt Power upgrading their transmission line and building a new substation for the project. 

 

Prairie Energy provides power to the City of Corwith, which has a population of 350.  Mayor Gourley stated, “Being partners with Prairie Energy and IADG is a positive thing for Corwith and our region.”  Since the announcement and construction of the Hawkeye Pride project, a new restaurant has opened in Corwith and Hawkeye Pride has purchased a building on mainstreet, which will serve as the company’s main office for the Corwith facility. Gourley commented that the project will be “bio-secure” and the office in town will clear any visitors to the site. The office building for Hawkeye Pride is another improvement in town, along with some other buildings that have been improved as part of the community’s pro-active beautification initiative and business development efforts.