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Tyson Opens First New Poultry Plant in 25 Years in Retail Push

Tyson Opens First New Poultry Plant in 25 Years in Retail Push

America’s biggest meat company opened its first new poultry plant in 25 years after the pandemic gave grocery-store sales of chicken a boost.

Tyson Foods Inc.’s $425 million plant in Humboldt, Tennessee, is starting production of the retail products this month, and the company expects to employ 1,500 people at the facility by 2023, according to a statement released Thursday.

While the plant had been intended to focus on retail customers since its announcement in 2017, poultry companies have moved even further in that direction since the coronavirus pandemic closed restaurants and prompted a surge in demand for meals prepared at home.

Sanderson Farms Inc., the third-biggest U.S. chicken company after Tyson and Pilgrim’s Pride Corp., in December said it was evaluating a site to build a new plant for retail products.

Tyson said a feed mill will supply 56 local poultry farms, while a hatchery will provide chicks to the farmers who raise broiler chickens for the new plant.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.