HBF Foods is making the city home to one of its plants.

Officials gathered Thursday for the ceremony and tour of a former manufacturing facility at 2300 Reach Road in the industrial park.

When Handsome Brook Farms is operational, possibly by this fall, 2.5 million eggs per day will be processed at a plant, HBF employees said.

This will support one of the nation’s leading producers of organic pasture-raised eggs.

Local politicians and business leaders get a tour at the ground breaking of the Handsome Brook Farms egg processing facility on Reach Road Thursday morning. The new facility, that’s scheduled to open in late August, will process about 2.5 milliion eggs a day and is planned to employ at least 80 people. The facility will process eggs from Pennsylvania and they will have 3 shifts working 5 days a week. DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette

The eggs will arrive by tractor trailer at an estimated rate of 10,800 dozen eggs per truckload and an average of 10 tractor trailer trucks per day, said Tucker Schleining, final project manager at HBF.

Dr. Ada Vanessa Bradley, the plant manager, said she anticipated hiring 80 employees to start, with the potential for more as time goes on.

At the tour, Susan Holdren, principal architect, ArchCentral Architects Inc., Bloomsburg, pointed out the receiving and cooling building under construction and shared the interior space layout.

“They (eggs) come into our receiving cooler building and then the eggs will be pulled out when we are ready to process them,” Schleining said of the process. The machine has automation that pulls the eggs off the pallet and runs them through a “grader,” he said.

The grader washes them, grades them, does all of the checks HBF wants to see, and then puts them into the packages, he added.

Susan Holdren of ArchCentral of Bloomsburg walks guests through what will be office space at the ground breaking of the Handsome Brook Farms egg processing facility on Reach Road Thursday morning. The new facility, that’s scheduled to open in late August, will process about 2.5 milliion eggs a day and is planned to employ at least 80 people. The facility will process eggs from Pennsylvania and they will have 3 shifts working 5 days a week. DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette

The finish pallets are built by the packers that HBF employs and those finish pallets will go into a shipping cooler for shipment to customers, he said.

Currently, the customers are presently primarily Costco, according to Dr. Bradley. The eggs are from about 20 farms in Pennsylvania and some in other states.

Jason Fink, president and CEO of the Williamsport-Lycoming Chamber, expressed how much he was excited to welcome the industry as well as how grateful he was that local contractors were doing the renovation and construction.

He noted that once the industry becomes operational there will be high-quality, family-sustaining jobs available. He said HBF will add to a growing diversified industrial base. He was appreciative to HBF for selecting Lycoming County and Williamsport for its egg processing plant.

Also joining Fink were those equally appreciative about HBF locating its agriculture-intensive industry here including Mayor Derek Slaughter, county Commissioner Marc Sortman, state Sen. Gene Yaw, R-Loyalsock Township and state Rep. Jamie Flick, R-South Williamsport.

“T-Ross Brothers Construction reiterates the company’s commitment to building safely and delivering a facility that everyone can be proud of,” said Todd Ross, president and CEO of T-Ross Brothers Construction. The company, he said, thanks HBF Foods for their trust and support in the project.

“This groundbreaking ceremony is seen as a milestone, with the project aiming to be completed between August and September,” Ross said, adding the company looked forward to continuing the momentum and bringing the project to completion by August or September.