CANCO joins client celebrations as latest project gets underway

Representatives of Carl A. Nelson & Company (CANCO) were on-hand recently for celebrations of client Western Smokehouse Partners' accomplishments and recognitions in Illinois and Iowa.

The healthy-for-you meat snack maker held a private preview event in late September for its newest production facility, located in a former Maytag plant in Galesburg, Illinois. While some work remains, production has begun in the new plant where Western Smokehouse Partners hosted employees, local dignitaries, contractors, suppliers and others, offering samples of the product that will be produced in the plant, and offering guided tours. 

Once at full capacity, the plant will produce 800,000 snack sticks per day. The 175,000 SF renovation, coupled with a 56,000 SF addition that is being built currently at WSP's original plant in Galesburg, will bring the company's footprint in that city to 284,000 SF. Between the two locations, daily production capacity will reach 1.4 million snack sticks.

CANCO is providing design-build services to WSP on both projects, as well as for the ongoing two-phase project at the meat snack maker's 300,000 SF new plant inside a converted warehouse building in Mexico, Missouri.

During the preview event, Western Smokehouse CEO, Matt Bormann, and Chief Operating Officer, Doug Hankes, had praise for CANCO and its team of contractors.

Bormann complimented the builders' "unbelievable" speed in bringing simultaneous projects to completion.

"Carl A. Nelson has built multiple facilities for us," Hankes added. "We just can't tell you thank you enough."

Renovated production and office spaces are shown inside the former Maytag manufacturing plant in Galesburg, Illinois. Western Smokehouse Partners began producing meat snack sticks in the facility in October 2025 after about a year of spent by Carl A. Nelson & Company and a team of subcontractors converting the facility to food-grade use. CANCO

In October, the Greater Burlington Partnership named Western Smokehouse Partners its 2025 Manufacturer of the Year, in recognition of the company's role in the community as an industrial employer.

Just days before the award was presented, CANCO began mobilizing for the construction of a 28,000 SF, design-build addition at the Burlington facility. The expansion is the fifth major project being led by CANCO for Western Smokehouse Partners since the two companies first teamed up on the original Burlington plant conversion in 2022. The addition includes a new warehouse, expanded freezer capacity and six additional smokehouses. Also as part of the project, additional packaging room capacity will be added inside the existing footprint.

Completion of the project is slated for early June 2026.

Across seven plant locations in Missouri, Illinois, Iowa and Idaho, Western Smokehouse Partners' growth in production capacity has led it into the Top 3 among meat snack-makers in the United States. When the current construction projects are complete, according to a company spokesperson, Western Smokehouse will be capable of producing in excess of 1 billion snack sticks annually.

Members of Carl A. Nelson & Company's project leadership team inspect a cold-storage room in the expansion at Western Smokehouse Partners' original Galesburg plant. The expansion is one of four simultaneous major projects being led in three states by CANCO's design-builders. Projects include a two-phase warehouse conversion in Mexico, Missouri; the addition and a plant conversion in Galesburg, Illinois; and an expansion in Burlington, Iowa, that kicked off in September 2025. CANCO

Carl A. Nelson & Company project manager Ryan Harris, left, joins Roland Vorwaldt, plant manager at Western Smokehouse Partners in Burlington, Iowa, for a photo after the meat snack maker was presented the Greater Burlington Partnership's 2025 Manufacturer of the Year Award during its annual Manufacturer's Appreciation Luncheon. CANCO