Since its construction six years ago, Beef Products Inc.'s South Sioux City plant has undergone one improvement and expansion after another.

The company is a reflection of its founder and president, Eldon Roth. A refrigeration designer with a genius for invention, Roth has built BPI into the dominant player in its niche: lean meat added to ground beef, particularly when making hamburger patties for quick service restaurants (QSRs). Since its startup in 1981, BPI has built plants in Amarillo, Texas, Finney County, Kan., Waterloo, Iowa, and South Sioux City, Neb., where BPI's crown jewel stands. Constructed in 1998 and physically connected to an adjacent Tyson Fresh Meats (formerly IBP) packinghouse where 6,000 head of cattle are processed each day, the South Sioux City plant underwent $27 million in expansion and plant improvement in 2003.