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CHEROKEE, Iowa -- The former Tyson Foods meat plant in Cherokee, idle since 2014, has sprung back to life with a new owner and product line.

The Iowa Food Group plant, which employed 35 people, plans to begin production Monday, said Mack Zimmerman, one of the partners of the investor group formed last year.

"That's going to continue to grow over the next couple of month," Zimmerman said of the workforce. "We should be at 100 pretty quick this year."

Most of the Iowa Food Group leaders, which includes acting CEO Jeremy Robinson, come from Texas. The exception is director of sales Chad Vander Linden, a Muscatine, Iowa, native. The partners are veterans of the meat processing industry.

"We were looking for a plant like this -- this fit the bill," Zimmerman said. Most of the company's management has relocated to Cherokee or already lived there.

Iowa Food Group was able to negotiate "a really good deal that worked for everybody," Zimmerman said. The group paid $2.35 million for the multi-building plant in September, according to sale records.