House of Raeford Plant Furloughs 216 Workers Due to Temporary Shutdown
According to local news reports, the House of Raeford chicken plant in Williamsburg County, S.C., has been forced to temporarily shut down its entire cooked-product operations, resulting in the furlough of about 216 employees — all for an uncertain amount of time.
The shutdown will be long enough, and furloughed employee number high enough, that it required notification to be sent to the South Carolina Dept. of Employment and Workforce, which was submitted Nov. 24, 2025. The plant’s mechanically-separated chicken operations have remained operational.
House of Raeford representatives told the local news outlet that it did not definitively know how long the shutdown would last, and that “unforeseen equipment failure” was the culprit. In the notice sent to the employment department, the company said it had been experiencing “on and off shutdowns” at the plant.
The company added that it was “hopeful” that the shutdown will end and furloughed employees will be back to work next week, and that the event did not impact any other House of Raeford locations.
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.