Tyson Foods is closing 4 U.S. chicken processing plants in new effort to lower costs

Tyson Foods Inc. announced Monday that it will shut down four chicken processing plants nationwide as it looks to lower costs amid financial difficulties, per the Associated Press. The processing plants in question are located in North Little Rock, Arkansas; Corydon, Indiana; Dexter, Missouri and Noel, Missouri. The company said it will shift production to other facilities and halt operations at the four plants in the first two quarters of fiscal 2024. The company also expects a total charge of $300 million to $400 million from these closures.

“[The team members] will all be offered the opportunity to go to another place,” Tyson Foods CEO Donnie King told Yahoo Finance. “Even some of our live production, suppliers, our family farmers … many of them will have the opportunity to get out of the business or go to work with another integrator, or they will have the option of, in some cases, producing for one of our other operations where geographically [it] makes sense.”

In the wake of struggling business, financial losses and steep inflation on labor, grain and other inputs, Tyson closed its corporate offices in Chicago and South Dakota late last year and consolidated its workforce in Arkansas. In March, Tyson announced the closure of two plants in Arkansas and Virginia “in order to better use available capacity at other facilities,” the AP reported.