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WINDSOR – Bertie County officials announced here Monday night that Darling Ingredients Inc. has purchased Valley Proteins, a company with locations across the United States, including one near Lewiston Woodville.

Darling Ingredients Inc. is the world’s leading company of turning food waste into sustainable products and producer of renewable energy.

The $1.1 billion purchase closed on May 2. As part of the transaction, Darling Ingredients has acquired 18 major rendering plants and used cooking oil facilities throughout the southern, southeast and mid-Atlantic regions of the U.S.

In making the announcement of the purchase to the Bertie County Board of Commissioners at their regularly scheduled meeting on Monday evening, Steve Biggs, the county’s Economic Development Director, said Darling has over 200 processing plants located on five continents. The company, founded in 1882, is headquartered in Irving, Texas.

“They’re not a fly-by-night company,” he stressed. “That’s a good thing. Their stock was up $1.60 this morning [Monday].

“We’re happy to have a company like this come in and buy Valley Proteins. I feel real comfortable about this,” Biggs added.

“This is a very, very large company,” stated Commission Chairman John Trent. “They can bring in a lot of opportunities to Bertie County, in more ways than just the food waste industry. This company is dabbling in everything. They will be reaching out to me and when that happens I’ll reach out to Commissioner [Ron] Wesson and to Steve [Biggs] of course so we can sit down with them and go from there.

“Valley Proteins has built a good relationship with us and I appreciate what they have done over the years for the citizens of Bertie County,” Trent added.

“If there are any other opportunities that can be leveraged here, we want to try and pursue that with all we’ve got,” Wesson said.

Biggs said Darling’s business portfolio includes fuel, health, and other entities.

“They are a conglomerate,” Biggs noted. “They’ve been strong a long time, but they’ve really grown over the past 20 years. They have bought up a lot of companies.”

“They have a large footprint in numerous industries,” added Trent.

Darling collects waste streams from the agri-food industry, repurposing into specialty ingredients, such as hydrolyzed collagen, edible and feed-grade fats, animal proteins and meals, plasma, pet food ingredients, fuel feedstocks, and green bioenergy.

“We are excited to welcome Valley Proteins to the Darling Ingredients family,” said Randall C. Stuewe, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, in a statement on the company’s website. “Valley Proteins has built a successful rendering and used cooking oil business that immediately strengthens our base business and expands our ability to provide additional low carbon intensity feedstocks to fuel the growing demand for renewable diesel.”

With a current workforce of approximately 60 employees, Valley Proteins has been in operation since 2012 adjacent to the Perdue Processing Plant, according to Biggs. Prior to that, Perdue operated its own rendering plant at the same location.