Clemens Food Group's Hatfield North value-added pork processing facility has been named the 2023 Food Engineering Plant of the Year.  A sixth-generation family-owned business founded in Hatfield, Pennsylvania, Clemens Food Group has provided quality pork products since 1895. With such brands as Hatfield, Farm Promise and Prima Porta, Clemens is the country's fifth largest domestic fresh pork processor.

The 308,000 square foot greenfield facility was designed and built by Gray. The plant sits on a 32-acre plot on the Hatfield campus and increases production efficiency and capacity to 6,000 pounds per hour—good for 100 million pounds of cooked and smoked meat products per year.

In addition to managing the facility's design and construction, Gray provided extensive process and packaging systems design and engineering for multiple raw and ready-to-eat meat products.

"This efficient and integrated facility is a testament to the hard work of two teams coming together to form one," says Brian Jones, president and CEO, Gray Construction. "Clemens and Gray should be proud of this facility that both increases production for the company and sets a new standard of excellence within the industry."

This is the second award-winning project for this partnership. Gray also designed and built the company’s first greenfield operation, a state-of-the-art production facility in Coldwater, Michigan. That facility won the ProFood World Magazine Manufacturing Innovation Award in 2018.

"It's been great to work with Clemens through the years," says Tyler Cundiff, president, food and beverage group, Gray, Inc. "Together, our teams have collaborated for nearly a decade. It's been a true honor to play a role in two exciting and award-winning facilities."

"Our ongoing partnership with Gray has allowed our organization to grow and expand in a way that honors our core values of ethics, integrity and stewardship. We are thankful that our aligned business practices, and attention to detail, have resulted in not one, but two, best-in-class quality and food-safe facilities," said Brad Clemens, president of Clemens Food Group.

The new operation's fully hygienic design separates incoming raw ingredients from finished ready-to-eat products and includes a 4,800-ton ammonia refrigeration system and an isolated viewing corridor for customers of the RTE process lines.

The facility will be featured in the April cover story of Food Engineering, and the award will be presented at the annual Food Automation and Manufacturing Symposium and Expo, held in October.