Walmart Opens First Beef-Processing Facility as Beef Prices Rise

The facility is expected to create more than 600 jobs.

Groceries at a Walmart supermarket in Houston, Texas, on May 15, 2025. Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images

Walmart opened its “first-ever owned and operated case-ready beef facility” in Kansas, aimed at ensuring an efficient supply chain for Angus beef, the company said in a June 27 statement.

The 300,000-plus square-foot facility, located in Olathe, “will process fresh beef into case-ready cuts, packaged, and ready for retail, which are then shipped directly to Walmart distribution centers to serve stores in the Midwest,” it said.

The facility sources beef cuts directly from Sustainable Beef LLC, based in Nebraska. Walmart had made an equity investment in the company back in 2022. Sustainable Beef sources cattle from within a 250-mile radius of its plant in a region that has “exceptionally high-quality cattle,” the company said.

“The new facility will fulfill demand for quality beef in the region and is creating over 600 Walmart jobs for Olathe and the surrounding community,” it said. “The facility is also expected to generate increased business for suppliers and service providers.”

The site allows Walmart to bypass supply-chain middlemen amid soaring beef prices.

By eliminating middlemen from the processing and packaging activities, Walmart looks to save on costs.

The U.S. city average price for ground beef in May was $5.98 per pound, up nearly 8 percent from $5.54 in January and up more than 16 percent from $5.14 a year back, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Walmart’s Olathe facility was initially announced by the company in 2023. At the time, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly said the retailer would invest $257 million in the plant and create 667 new permanent jobs, with 1,000 jobs in construction and related activities.

“The opening of our new facility in Olathe, Kansas, is centered on delivering more of what our customers want—affordable food and quality they can trust,” said John Laney, executive vice president of Walmart’s U.S. food division.

Olathe Mayor John Bacon said the new Walmart facility is a “vote of confidence” in the community and the region’s workforce.

“With over 600 new jobs being created, this facility will fuel local economic growth and reinforce Olathe’s position as a regional agricultural leader,” he said.

Rising Beef Prices

Walmart is opening the Olathe facility at a time when beef prices are projected to move up, according to a June 18 report by the Department of Agriculture.

In the second quarter of 2025, there was a slowing in the pace of slaughter of steers, the report said. Steers are male bovines usually raised for their meat.

Due to the atypical slowdown in slaughter at this time of the year, “wholesale composite boxed beef prices have likely increased in response to less beef produced than might have been expected going into the second quarter,” it added.

“Based on price data through early June, the second-quarter 2025 slaughter steer price forecast is raised $9,” to $226 per hundredweight (cwt), it said. Prices for the third and fourth quarters have also been raised, with the overall 2025 prices rising as well.

According to Walmart, the Olathe facility is part of the company’s strategy to build an “end-to-end supply chain” for Angus beef.

“With more customers seeking greater transparency about where their food comes from, this investment demonstrates Walmart’s commitment to delivering traceable, high-quality products while strengthening supply-chain resiliency and control,” the company said.

Walmart said these efforts support the company’s pledge to invest $350 billion in U.S.-manufactured products by 2031. More than two-thirds of the retailer’s annual spend is currently on products that are produced, grown, or assembled in the United States, it added.

The Olathe facility is one of the latest expansion projects for Walmart. On April 17, the company announced the opening of a new 1 million square-foot distribution center in Jacksonville, Florida, to receive and process items for more than a dozen Sam’s Club locations.