Handsome Brook Farms announced Friday that the cage free chicken egg producing company will be investing $30.8 million to establish its first manufacturing operation in Hamblen Count.
The farm’s chief executive officer Jordan Czeizler said, “We are excited to locate this new manufacturing business here in Morristown and to join this community as an employer, investor, property owner, and corporate citizen. As we researched possible locations across several states, we kept coming back to the favorable environment created by local, regional, TVA, and state officials here in Tennessee and in Morristown. We look forward to growing our business here in this community and sincerely appreciate the support and welcome that we have received.”
The Handsome Brook Farms (HBF) say they hope to create 140 new jobs over the next five years for the citizens of Hamblen County and will modernize the existing facility located on Technology Way.
“I am excited that members of Handsome Brook Farms have chosen to locate their new manufacturing operations in Morristown,” State Senator Steve Southerland (R-Morristown) said; adding; “I appreciate the state and local officials who helped bring this company to our community.”
“Our eggs are pasture-raised, as opposed to cage-free, free-range or even organic,” HBF co-founder Betsy Babcock told The Challenger Project. “Our typical farm has 5,000 hens in a barn, and it has 12 and a half acres per barn. That is in comparison to a cage-free barn that will have a million chickens in a barn or a free-range barn that will have 100,000 chickens in a barn. So, in terms of scale, we require more farms for the same production of eggs.”
Since 2018, the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development has supported more than 50 economic development projects in the East Tennessee region, resulting in approximately 7,600 job commitments and nearly $2 billion in capital investments.
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Kaitlyn Osteen is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Send Kaitlyn news tips to [email protected].
Photo “Chicken Farm” by Alexas Fotos.