Darling Ingredients Holds Follow-up Job Fair 

“We Are Not Here to Fail, We Are Here to Succeed”    

By Will Johnson
Messenger Reporter

GRAPELAND – The second job fair of Darling Ingredients, Inc. is now in the books following another successful event at the Grapeland Senior Citizens Center.

Tom Molini, South Region Vice President of Darling Ingredients, Inc. was in attendance at the job fair and was asked about the success of the follow-up employee recruitment.

“It’s going really well. We’re plugging away at getting the plant ready and now we’re having the second round of the job fair. We’re hoping to see the people who had to work during the day of the last one so, we’re going from 4 p.m. until 8 p.m. tonight,” he said.

Molini said the company was looking to fill nearly every position at the Darling Ingredients plant, now under construction on FM 227 East in Grapeland.

“We’re looking to fill everything, but it won’t be right away. We need to start getting a pool of applications together so we can go through them and start the interviewing process. We hope to be up and running by November so October’s when we will start doing the interviews,” he said.

“We are going to hire a few people right away in order to get them trained over in Bastrop so we’re not starting off fresh with everyone. We’re looking to hire a few cooker operators and some drivers. What we haul is a little bit different than regular hauls,” the VP added.

Concerning the driver positions, Molini said ideal candidates would have Class A CDL licensure with a tanker endorsement.

“Our finished product is hauled in tankers and some of our raw product is also hauled in tankers,” he said. “There is no hazardous material that we haul. Drivers just a CDL-A with a tanker endorsement and a clean driving record.”

Other positions Molini said they were looking to fill include: cooker operators; truck dumpers; utility positions; plant maintenance; truck mechanics; wastewater operators; a lab technician; and farmhands.

“In total, with management, we’re looking to hire somewhere in the neighborhood of 56 people. We’re bringing in three people – the GM, the plant manager and the transportation manager,” Molini said.

While several of the plant’s managerial positions have been filled “… we’ve still been doing some interviews for office manager. We will send them over to Bastrop for two, maybe two and a half months for training because they will run the office. They will need to know our financials and our system.”

Concerning the Thursday job fair, Molini said the attendance was down somewhat from the previous event, but added the company had anticipated a lower turnout than the first event.

“We expected that. Right now it’s early. The reason we are having it when we’re having it is because we are hoping to get a late group of folks who don’t start coming in until 5:30 p.m., or so,” he said.

As the discussion drew to a close, Molini commented, “I have nothing but good things to say about the people of Grapeland. They have opened their arms and welcomed us better than anyone could have hoped for. As many people as we had for the job fair last time, it was just amazing. If we need to have another job fair, we’ll have another one. It’s one of those things where we want to make sure we get the right people. We are not here to fail, we are here to succeed.”

Will Johnson may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].

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