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Kane Beef sale closes, operations to begin “as soon as possible”

Posted at 10:42 PM, Feb 28, 2019
and last updated 2019-02-28 23:42:26-05

Kane Beef officially has a new owner. The sale of the beef processing company closed on Thursday, with STX Beef Company, an affiliate of Houston based JDH Capital, acquiring the company.

Nearly all of Kane Beef’s 750 workers have been furloughed since late January, when a potential sale of the company at the time collapsed. However, the new owner has not indicated an exact date when the plant will resume operations and employees will return to work.

The president of STX Beef, Ryan Connelly, released a statement about the purchase saying, “Our top priority is reopening the plant and returning Kane’s employees back to work. Now that the sale has closed, we have begun the process of securing the necessary permits needed and completing our ongoing review of the operation in order to successfully reopen the plant. STX Beef looks forward to resuming operations as soon as possible and we will provide updates to employees, cattle producers and customers as our efforts continue. There’s still a lot of work ahead, but it’s an exciting day for STX Beef.”

Connelly continued, “We are excited to see this process reach a successful conclusion. Kane Beef has been serving ranchers, feeders and customers in South Texas and beyond for almost 70 years, and we look forward to restoring its legacy of providing high-quality beef sourced from trusted Texas beef producers. Our investment underscores our view that this is a tremendous opportunity – for the employees and their families, the community at large and for the many Texas ranchers that have relied upon this facility for generations.”

JDH Capital bid $28 million dollars for Kane Beef during a court-approved bankruptcy auction earlier this month. The sale was expected to close last week, but there were delays in the negotiation process.