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April 13, 2009

Pilgrim's Pride to close Dalton plant

280 jobs will go

By Jamie Jones

Pilgrim’s Pride will cut about 280 jobs when the company closes its chicken processing plant near downtown Dalton in the next 60 days, another hit to a city battered by deep job losses in the floorcovering industry.

The Pittsburg, Texas-based company, one of the largest chicken companies in the country, will consolidate the Dalton plant on Hamilton Street with a similar facility in Chattanooga. Pilgrim’s Pride spokesman Ray Atkinson said the company does not plan to move any of the Dalton jobs to the Chattanooga plant. Pilgrim’s Pride will provide programs to laid off employees to help them find new jobs, file for unemployment and obtain other benefits.

The company’s hatchery in Cohutta will remain open. Approximately 120 independent contract growers who currently supply birds to the Dalton processing plant will supply the Chattanooga plant or other nearby facilities, including Ellijay, within 90 days. There are 29 broiler farms that supply farms in Murray and Whitfield counties.

David Ridley is one of those growers in Murray County. He has eight houses that have about 240,000 chickens. He has two employees. Ridley said he was surprised when he was notified Monday morning by a Pilgrim’s Pride representative that the plant is closing. He is worried what effect the plant closing will have on his business and the entire industry, which is battling higher costs.

“The past couple of years have not been good for north Georgia chicken growers,” said Ridley, who is also the Murray County sole commissioner. “From a grower’s perspective, the past two years I’ve gone in the red growing chickens. I’ve had to take money out of my own pocket to supplement the farm to try to make the chicken houses survive.”

Ridley said he is also concerned about the impact of the plant closing on north Georgia.

“From a government perspective, what really troubles me is that our neighboring county is going to lose 277 jobs to this closure,” Ridley said. “That’s 277 more people in the unemployment lines. It’s not what we’re looking for in Metro Dalton.”

The plant closing comes at an especially trying time for Dalton, which has already been hit by hundreds of job cuts in the floorcovering industry. The unemployment for Metro Dalton (Murray and Whitfield counties) climbed to 12.9 percent in February — almost double the rate a year ago. Metro Dalton had a unemployment rate of 6.1 percent in February 2008 and 11.9 percent in January 2009.

Brian Anderson, president of the Dalton-Whitfield Chamber of Commerce, said the problems facing the floorcovering and poultry industries reinforce the need be “very aggressive” in developing other industries.

“You’ve got two industries that are being negatively affected by two economic conditions through no fault of their own,” Anderson said. “They weren’t out doing stupid things like some of the financial institutions. We’re a community that is affected by a very unique economy and we’re going to have to be more aggressive and think much more broadly than other communities.”

Pilgrim’s Pride filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2008. Closing the Dalton plant will reduce costs and make the production process more efficient, company spokesman Ray Atkinson said. Atkinson said he could not speculate what the company will do with the plant, which is one of the company’s smaller processing plants. The Chattanooga facility has about 1,700 workers.

“By consolidating the production from Dalton into Chattanooga, we’ll be able to reduce our costs by producing product in one place instead of two,” Atkinson said. “We’ll be able to have the same production instead of operating two different plants.”

Pilgrim’s Pride bought the Dalton plant from Con Agra Foods in 2003. Pilgrim’s Pride employs approximately 47,000 people and operates 35 chicken processing plants and 11 prepared-foods facilities in 14 states, Puerto Rico and Mexico.

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