Changing consumer demands, Tyson shuts plant

According to Tyson, 83% of consumers’ main meals include ready-to-eat foods. The increased popularity of hot, rotisserie chicken in retail delis has contributed to reduced demand for Tyson’s long-standing line of refrigerated, oven roasted chicken.

After a thorough business review, the company has decided to exit production of the oven roasted line, which is produced at one of Tyson’s facilities in Wilkesboro, North Carolina.

“Our oven roasted chicken has been a successful Tyson product for almost 20 years,” said Donnie Smith, group vice president of Consumer Products for Tyson Foods. “Despite exhaustive efforts to continue this success, we’ve made the difficult decision to stop production and devote our resources to other products designed to help us stay ahead of where today’s consumer is going.”

Because of this decision, the Wilkesboro Cooked Products Plant is currently scheduled to suspend operations on or before April 1. This will result in the elimination of just over 400 jobs. No decision has been made about future use of the plant.