Pilgrim’s Pride to shut down meat facilities in Tennessee

US-based meat processing company Pilgrim’s Pride plans to shut down its cooking and cold storage facilities in Market Street, Chattanooga, Tennessee within the next two weeks, a move which will result in 200 job losses.

The proposed closure is part of the company’s restructuring plan which has been ongoing since May, under which its operations in Chattanooga were transformed from prepared foods to small bird deboning.

The eliminated operations will be consolidated at the company’s modern and efficient facilities in Chattanooga, reported Times Free Press.

A Pilgrim’s Pride spokesman said that the employees affected by the closure will be offered jobs at the company’s other facilities in the region and that 40 jobs have already been added at the deboning facility.

There will be no changes to the slaughter operations at the Broad Street facilities or deboning operations at Market Street, the company said.

There were more than 1,500 employees at the company’s facilities in Chattanooga at the beginning of 2012; however, currently there are fewer than 1,000.

Headquartered in Greeley, Colorado, Pilgrim’s Pride is a subsidiary of the Brazilian food giant JBS and is involved in the production, processing, marketing and distribution of fresh, frozen and value-added chicken products in the US, Mexico and Puerto Rico.

The company offers whole or cut-up chicken, pre-marinated or non-marinated, and prepackaged chicken, prepared chicken products, such as portion-controlled breast fillets, tenderloins and strips, and exports whole chickens and chicken parts to approximately 100 countries worldwide.