Champion Petfoods Celebrates Grand Opening of Kentucky DogStar® Kitchens

On Thursday, May 12, Canadian-based Champion Petfoods celebrated the grand opening of its Kentucky DogStar® kitchens with a very special event: an outdoor Trail Festival featuring food, live music, family activities and more. Champion selected Gray Construction to design and build the 371,000 s.f. DogStar^® kitchens in Auburn, Ky., which is the company’s first specialty pet food operation in the U.S.

Purpose-built to advance Champion’s BAFRINO (Biologically Appropriate^™ Fresh Regional Ingredients Never Outsourced) mandate, the state-of-the-art facility features custom-designed kitchens for two product lines, Champion’s ACANA and ORIJEN brand pet foods. The DogStar^® kitchens were built on an aggressive schedule to supply pet food solely to the company’s growing U.S. market.

The Trail Festival boasted an impressive lineup of musical acts including performances by Galactic Funk, Harpath Rising, Anthony Smith, Ed and Friends, the Spirit of the Commonwealth Chorus and more. In addition to live entertainment and family-friendly activities, the event invited attendees to “Eat Like Your Dog,” which presented a diverse menu of fare selected specifically to complement the fresh, regional ingredients used in Champion’s products.

“We are thrilled to share this unforgettable experience with our friends at Champion,” said Phil Seale, executive vice president, Manufacturing and Food & Beverage Groups. “From groundbreaking to grand opening, we’ve enjoyed seeing this project through to a successful completion and look forward to witnessing its continued impact on the state of Kentucky.”

Champion Petfoods is an independent, award-winning Canadian pet food maker with a tradition of innovation and leadership that spans over a quarter century. Known and trusted among pet lovers worldwide, Champion’s ACANA and ORIJEN brands of Biologically Appropriate^™ foods mirror the evolutionary diets of dogs and cats, feature unmatched inclusions of fresh and local ingredients, and are prepared exclusively in the company’s own award-winning kitchens.

Gray Construction, is a nationally ranked engineering, architecture and construction firm with over 56 years of experience in manufacturing, automotive, food and beverage, distribution, hospitality and retail facility construction. Currently, Gray has several large projects that are underway or recently completed including: a Mercedes-Benz manufacturing facility in Vance, Ala.; a fresh pork processing facility in Coldwater, Michigan for Clemens Food Group; a Keurig manufacturing facility in Douglasville, Ga.; a utility vehicle manufacturing facility for Kubota Manufacturing of America Corporation in Gainesville, Ga.; an expansion to Wrigley’s Yorkville, Ill. campus; and a manufacturing facility for Weber Metals in Paramount, Calif.

If you have food and beverage plant construction needs, please contact Phil Seale, executive vice president, Manufacturing/Food & Beverage Groups at pseale@gray.com. Or, contact Tyler Cundiff, director, Business Development at tcundiff@gray.com.