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Tyson Foods Sells Vienna, Georgia, Poultry Complex to House of Raeford Farms

July 10, 2024
The sale is part of Tyson’s continued efforts to optimize its processing network across its business units.

Tyson Foods has agreed to sell its Vienna, Ga., poultry complex to House of Raeford Farms, according to an announcement released by Tyson. This is the latest move by Tyson to continue to optimize its operations network across its business units.

In January 2015, Tyson announced a 100,000-sq.-ft. expansion of the Vienna processing plant, with an investment of more than $110 million to convert it from processing chicken products for foodservice and restaurants to supply fresh tray-pack chicken for regional retail customers. That expansion was expected to create more than 500 jobs, added to the 700 or so employed there already, a Tyson release noted at the time. Tyson purchased the plant in 1995.

Tyson said in the announcement of the Georgia poultry complex sale that it will shift its customer orders to its other production facilities, and House of Raeford intends to continue to process poultry at the complex, retaining the current workforce and supplying the plant through its own grower network.

Over the past year and a half, Tyson has closed or sold numerous plants across its divisions and made significant strategic changes as it attempts to turn around its fortunes following heavy financial losses in the post-pandemic era. In 2023, Tyson shuttered six chicken plants across the country in two separate moves.

Although the poultry business has had a relatively quiet period since then, the impact of Tyson’s efforts had most recently been felt in the pork business unit, with the company having announced in March the closure of its Perry, Iowa, pork processing facility.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, and the deal was still subject to regulatory approval.

About the Author

Andy Hanacek | Senior Editor

Andy Hanacek has covered meat, poultry, bakery and snack foods as a B2B editor for nearly 20 years, and has toured hundreds of processing plants and food companies, sharing stories of innovation and technological advancement throughout the food supply chain. In 2018, he won a Folio:Eddie Award for his unique "From the Editor's Desk" video blogs, and he has brought home additional awards from Folio and ASBPE over the years. In addition, Hanacek led the Meat Industry Hall of Fame for several years and was vice president of communications for We R Food Safety, a food safety software and consulting company.

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