Popular meat company that provides food for Walmart and Target set to close busy plant and lay off over 800 employees

Over 800 people are employed at a busy beef and pork plant that a well-known meat maker plans to permanently close.

Tyson, which sells its meat products at stores like Walmart and Target, had to make the difficult choice because of financial strain.

Tyson Foods, the biggest meat company in the United States based on sales, declared on Monday that it would close a beef and pork plant located 60 miles southwest of Topeka in Emporia, Kansas.

In a letter to the Kansas Department of Commerce, the firm announced that it would close the meat processing facility in February of next year.

In a letter to Emporia officials, Ernesto Sanchez, Tyson’s vice president of beef and pork operations, stated that the move was a component of his “business strategy to operate more efficiently.”

809 Tyson employees will be impacted by the factory shutdown.

With more than 5,000 workers spread across many Kansas plants, Tyson was one of the biggest employers in the Emporia area.

The shutdown will have a significant effect on the Emporia community and its employees, the business revealed in a statement.

Our team members’ well-being is our first priority, and we urge them to apply for other available positions within the organization, Tyson stated.

In order to give individuals affected more resources, we are also collaborating closely with state and municipal authorities.

The Holcomb facility could accommodate up to 200 workers from the Emporia factory.

The upcoming closure has disappointed US Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas, a member of the US Senate Agriculture Committee.

“I’m devastated to hear that Tyson’s is closing its plant in Emporia,” he remarked. For these families and the community as a whole, this is heartbreaking news, particularly around Christmas.

MEAT MADNESS

For Tyson, the more than 800 lost jobs are simply one more setback.

Since the start of last year, the meat industry has closed six chicken facilities and a pork factory in Iowa, which has resulted in the loss of thousands of jobs.

Factors in the cattle market, such as the US cow population being at its lowest level in decades, have put Tyson under financial strain.

Tyson now needs to pay more to process the livestock as a result.

Tyson has already recovered, but the company’s chicken division also suffered in the past when officials miscalculated customer demand.

The meat processor’s beef division, which generated $233 million in revenue in 2023, is its largest division.

Then, for its fiscal year 2024, which concluded in September, the beef unit reported an adjusted loss of $291 million.

The business anticipates losing money the following year.

Some businesses are having financial difficulties, such as Subway, which is closing two of its sites in the same city.

In addition, a well-known mall retailer is attempting to survive after filing for bankruptcy and is permanently closing a location after 12 years.

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