WYOMING – A co-op of West Michigan turkey farmers plans to invest another $12.9 million at two processing plants.

A proposed expansion of the Michigan Turkey Producers Co-op, Inc. facility at 2140 Chicago Drive SW, along with addition of machinery at 1100 Hall St. SW, would add 35 new jobs, according to paperwork filed with the city.

A hearing on a requested tax break is tentatively set for March 19. Wyoming officials are recommending a 12-year tax discount that would save the company about $211,000 in the first year.

Michigan Turkey Producers in 2006 started cooking turkeys at the Hall Street site, a former Van Eerden Distribution Co. facility, and now cooks about 33 million pounds per year, said Dan Lennon, president and chief executive officer. That plant has capacity for 60 million pounds, but is basically out of room for more meat-cooking preparation like seasoning, he said.

A 28,000-square-foot addition to the Chicago Drive plant would consolidate and expand meat preparation. That would free up room at the Hall site for new equipment, including a meat slicer and packing line, Lennon said.

“As we are expanding our presence in the food service arena in particular, the customers we’re talking to are people that don’t want to have a slicer in the back of the house,” he said. “The market seems to be moving that way, so we’re moving with it.

“(The latest investment) is kind of a flow improvement as well as a capacity expansion. We don’t really need to add ovens quite yet, but that is on the horizon at some point in time.”

Several turkey farmers launched the co-op in 2000 after a Bil Mar Foods, Inc. processing plant in Ottawa County closed. The co-op sells mostly raw meat, though the cooked-turkey share of its business is rising.

Wyoming two years ago gave the co-op a tax break to increase cooking capacity at the Hall site to 45 million pounds per year, with room for up to 60 million pounds in the future.

Wages for the 35 new jobs - 10 at the Chicago Drive plant and 25 on Hall Street – will average under $11 per hour, Lennon said. The company’s starting rate is $8.75 per hour.

The plants have 608 employees who process about 4.8 million turkeys raised by 16 growers. Workers in 2010 rejected an attempt to unionize.