Family Business

Pleasant Prairie-based Fair Oaks Foods is once again expanding, this time with the construction of a new fully cooked bacon facility in Davenport, Iowa. The new 150,000-square-foot facility will be located in the Eastern Iowa Industrial Center and is expected to cost $134 million. Operations at the plant are expected to start in early 2024 with an estimated 247 workers. Fair Oaks Foods is a family-owned meat processing company and the eleventh largest Black-owned business in the U.S. The company is a supplier of custom meats to restaurant chains and food companies. Fair Oaks Foods currently occupies four buildings within LakeView Corporate Park in Pleasant Prairie. Portage, Michigan-based The Austin Company will serve as the designer and builder for the project. “I am extremely excited to expand our business to the great city of Davenport,” said Michael L. Thompson, CEO and president of Fair Oaks Foods. “We look forward to a long-standing relationship with the Quad Cities community, the city and the state of Iowa. My dream is to build a long-standing ‘legacy’ family business. The opportunity that the city has extended to us is the right fit, at the right time, for Fair Oaks Foods. It will be a great opportunity for our people to live and thrive in this region.”