04/09/2026
RUSHVILLE, Ind. - A stretch of farmland in Rush County has quickly transformed into one of the largest investments the community has seen in years, and it’s still just getting started.
In November, Diamond Pet Foods’ new manufacturing and distribution facility in Rushville went online and began producing pet food for customers throughout the Midwest. The building marks the latest expansion for a company that has grown from a small Missouri feed mill into a national operation.
Today, the site employs nearly 200 people, and in the next several years, that number could climb to around 300. Mark Schell, Diamond Pet Foods’ vice president of manufacturing, said the project’s scale reflects the demand they expect the facility to serve.
“It’s the biggest facility we’ve ever built,” Schell said in an interview with Inside INdiana Business. “It will be twice as big as our other facilities when it’s at full capacity.”
Unlike the company’s previous expansions that relied on existing infrastructure, the Rushville site started from scratch. “It was just a cornfield,” Schell said, and building it from the ground up brought both opportunity and challenges.
The company had to navigate engineering and site development challenges it had not faced before.
“Anytime you bring a new facility online, there’s some stress that goes along with it too,” Schell said. “But things have gone really well. We’re very, very pleased with where we’re at.”
The Rushville facility remains in a startup phase, and its teams are focused on training employees, troubleshooting systems and gradually increasing production capacity. That ramp up is happening alongside a shift in the pet food industry.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Schell said demand surged as more households brought home pets, forcing manufacturers to prioritize keeping up with existing orders. To meet the demand, Diamond Pet Foods made plans for the nearly $260 million, 700,000-square-foot facility — which was first announced in late 2021 — and construction began in 2022.
Now, with new facility coming online in Rushville, the company is repositioning itself by moving some existing customers to the new plant while also pursuing new business across the Midwest and Canada. How quickly the facility reaches full production will depend largely on that demand, Schell said.
“Really just focus on good, solid, manageable growth, over the next few years,” Schell said. “We don’t want to grow too big because you can kind of outgrow yourself, but yet you want to kind of keep pushing that, high single-digit growth. I think we’ve got the room to do that. We’ve got a motivated sales force that’s gonna go out and help bring that demand to that facility.”
For Rushville and the surrounding region, the impact is already taking shape.
The company is drawing workers from as far as 30 to 45 miles away, Schell said, offering wages and benefits that are designed to support long-term employment. That includes covering 100% of health insurance premiums for employees and their families.
Still, Schell said the focus remains on building a workforce that can grow with the facility — starting with early hiring efforts that began roughly 18 months before production started, and continuing through ongoing training today.
“You’re bringing a lot of new folks in there that don’t have a lot of experience in manufacturing or pet food,” he said. “So you’ve got to have patience and train those folks up well.”
At the same time, the company acknowledges the realities of manufacturing work. Twelve-hour shifts and a fast-paced environment can lead to early turnover, especially as new hires adjust to the demands of the job.
Diamond Pet Foods is also investing in the Rush County community. It has partnered with a local community center, providing funds for programs aimed at families and children. Schell said part of an effort to establish a long-term presence in the county.
“We just want to be a good destination job for the folks in the community,” he said. “We want to be good stewards of that community.”
Founded in 1970 in rural Missouri, Diamond Pet Foods has long operated in smaller communities, a model Schell said aligns with how the company does business.
The facility represents more than just job creation the local community. Schell said it signals efforts to bring economic momentum back to rural areas that have faced years of slow growth.
“Throughout the years some of our rural communities have suffered, not only in Indiana, but everywhere that I go,” he said. “I think, hopefully we can help.”
