Lawleys to boost efficiency, footprint with new feed additive production site

Lawley’s Inc. is seeking to improve its support of dairy producers, along with its production efficiency and quality control with a new Texas-based manufacturing facility.

The California-based animal feed additive producer purchased the new production facility as part of an effort to expand the company’s market and address efficiency and quality control, said Casey Lawley, general manager with Lawley’s.

The company acquired the new production facility through its subsidiary Plain Star, LLC. Previously, the site was a shuttered ADM milling facility.

“We have a large presence in the southwest region currently,” ​he told FeedNavigator. “We service the southwest area pretty heavily – it made sense to manufacture there.”​

Lawley’s is a feed additive and nutritional supplement producer that has long focused on addressing animal health through nutrition.

“The intention [would be] to allow us to better serve the area, and to have more of a competitive edge,” ​said Lawley.  ​

Producers value local manufacture of the products they use, he said. Adding, “That weighed heavily on our decision.”​

Facility overview​

The 80,000 square-foot site houses a production facility and a modern research laboratory, said Lawley.

The company is anticipating several months of remodeling and additional work following the start of manufacturing.

“We’re hoping to have something in the works in the next six months,” ​he added regarding the initial start of product production.

The initial production goal will be to generate supplements for dairy producers, milk replacers and nutritional products for young calves, he said.

“​In the long term there’s no set goal for what we’d do with the facility, but it could allow us to get into a range of specialty products we aren’t currently doing,”​ he added.

“It’s a distribution point and a manufacturing point,” ​he said. “As far as equipment – we blend milk replacers and mineral specialty products so we will have mixers and elevators and we will have something that we don’t have here – we’ll be able to dispense out of metal silos that are within the building that will make our batching processing more efficient and ensure our quality control.” ​

The newer facility also will have a more automated system capable of being managed off-site and improved quality control abilities, Lawley said.

“That’s kind of the goal – we were looking to fully automate the mill, we’re not fully automated in California, that’s one the biggest things that allows us to be more efficient,”​ he added.

The increased automation is expected to allow for improved control regarding the mixing process and ingredient use, he said.

"It will be state of the art beyond anyone else and that’s what we really saw with this facility,”​ he added.

At full production, the new location is anticipated to be able to exceed and possibly double the capacity manufactured at the company’s current site in California, he said.