Tyson Foods broke ground on Wednesday at the future site of the company’s new chicken processing plant to be located in Humboldt, Tennessee in Gibson County in western Tennessee. The new plant will be located within the Gibson County Industrial Park and will produce prepackaged trays of fresh chicken for retail groceries nationwide. It is expected to process 1.25 million birds per week.
“Today marks another important step in our journey with the people of Humboldt and Gibson Country,” said Doug Ramsey, group president of poultry for Tyson Foods. “We’re excited to roll up our sleeves, get to work and continue the successful working relationship we’ve had with the state of Tennessee for more than four decades.”
The approximately $300 million project is expected to create more than 1,500 local jobs once the new plant begins operations, which is expected to occur in late 2019.
Tyson also announced that is providing Gibson Country with a $500,000 community grant. A local steering community, comprised of community leaders and Tyson team members, will decide how the grant money will be used.
The payroll and payments to farmers from the new plant, along with Tyson’s purchase of grain and utilities, is expected to generate an annual economic benefit to the state of Tennessee of approximately $150 million, according to the Tyson announcement.
“This day represented the culmination of 20 years of vision, hard work and dedication by many leaders and citizens of Gibson County,” said Kinglsey Brock, director of economic development for Gibson Country. “Tyson Foods is a world-class company with world-class team members, and Gibson Country and Humboldt will be home to the world’s most advanced, high-tech poultry processing plant,” Brock said.
The Humboldt plant is the second major economic development project for Tyson Foods in Tennessee within the last year. In August 2017, the company announced an $84 million expansion of its Union City operations, which is expected to create approximately 300 jobs, in addition to the facility’s more than 1,000 current jobs.
Including Union City, Tyson Foods operates four facilities in Tennessee, employing approximately 5,000 people with an annual payroll of more than $181 million. In its 2016 fiscal year, Tyson said it paid Tennessee farmers more than $61 million. Tyson Foods estimates its total statewide annual impact for fiscal 2016, including payroll, grain purchases, utilities, property taxes and charitable contributions to exceed $313 million.
