According to local news reports, Tyson Foods will shut down operations at two facilities in Emporia, Kan., within the next several months.
State and local workforce filings confirmed that the company will close its lab around Dec. 20, 2024, and it will shutter the processing plant in town around Feb. 14, 2025, the report noted. It anticipates that 804 jobs will be eliminated between the two closings.
Ernesto Sanchez, vice president of operations, beef and pork, for Tyson Foods, told city and state officials in a letter that the closures were deemed necessary for the company to operate more efficiently. The local news cited a city official who said that operations would be relocated to Tyson’s plant in Holcomb, Kan., and another news outlet said that more than 200 employees’ positions would be shifted to that complex.
The company committed to working with officials to help workers transition to new jobs.
The Emporia plant once was a slaughter plant, but around 2008, as the cattle supply began to dry up in the region, Tyson Foods converted it to a value-added beef and pork cutting facility.
