McCall Farms Expanding Its Roots
Thursday, June 14, 2007
By Terry Ward
EFFINGHAM — McCall Farms Inc. cut the ribbon on a new $3.9 million freezer operation Wednesday.
Marion Swink — who is a co-president, along with his brother Henry Swink — said the addition to the company would allow McCall Farms to make the transition from a canning facility to a company that markets frozen food products.
The expansion will result in 40 full-time jobs, which will bring the company’s number of employees to about 180.
During the ceremony, Henry Swink thanked several local officials for an abundance of cooperation to make the new facility possible.
Others who spoke during the event included South Carolina Secretary of Commerce Joe Taylor and S.C. Secretary of Agriculture Hugh Weathers.
“This is how economic development is supposed to work,” Taylor said.
Weathers said agriculture in the second leading industry in the state, and said it was good any time agriculture business expands. He also said agriculture expansion helps combat urban sprawl, and he said it has a positive effect on the environment.
Sen. Hugh Leatherman of Florence also spoke during the ceremony, as did Florence County Council Chairman Rusty Smith.
Leatherman thanked McCall Farms for its corporate citizenship during the years. Smith detailed McCall Farms’ history. The company was established in 1838.
McCall Farms first announced plans to expand its Effingham operation in January.
“We expect the hiring to be done by the end of the year,” said Henry Swink said during a previous interview. He said the expansion would lead to the use of 3,000 to 4,000 acres in the Pee Dee for the production of crops.
“We’ll use high-value crops like greens, turnips, squash, black-eyed peas, butter beans and other vegetables,” he said.
McCall Farms products include Margaret Holmes, Peanut Patch, Greer, Osage and Lord Chesterfield, along with many private labels. Henry Swink said the products are sold in all local grocery stores. Canned products produced by McCall Farms include vegetables such as green beans, okra, peaches, peas and boiled peanuts.
The produce that will be used in the new operation will be a “great alternative” to tobacco, a crop that has been on the decline recently, he said.
McCall Farms had considered purchasing a competing company in Georgia to expand its frozen foods product line, according to the release. But representatives from the Florence Economic Development Partnership, Pee Dee Electric Cooperative Inc. and the South Carolina Department of Commerce, along with Leatherman, urged McCall Farms to expand in Effingham.
“This is the ideal location for it,” Henry Swink said during a previous interview. “These products are sold in the South, and this is close to the markets.”
He also said the Pee Dee has ideal soil quality for growing the produce.
“This county has been home to McCall Farms for over 100 years, and it has been a valued corporate citizen. We look forward to many more great years,” Leatherman said in a press release.
“I have grown up with McCall Farms products and to see the company grow and prosper is a true testament to the vision of the owners and associates,” Smith said in the release.
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