Latest news, weather and high school sports for Albany and Southwest Georgia

TIFTON, GA --
Tift County now has it's  first food processing plant after Bell Plantation opened their new facility Wednesday in Tifton.

Bell Plantation has always been located in Tifton, but was getting their peanut-based products manufactured elsewhere.

After deciding to bring manufacturing in-house, Bell Plantation moved to a larger facility in Tifton.

The move brought an increase of employees; jumping from nine to twenty three, with a projection of being at 250 in a few years.

"This facility is really only going to hold us for about 5 years, at the rate we are currently growing. It's amazing, and the jobs that we're going to bring in are even more exciting, I mean we all know we need jobs created and the exactly what we're doing here," said Jill St. John the Executive V.P. of Bell Plantations.

Officials with the company believe that growth within the next five years could lead them to outgrow their new facility.