Sanderson Farms now one of largest employers in east Texas

Despite the labor shortage that much of the livestock industry is facing, Sanderson Farms has hired over 1,000 people recently as a result of the company’s new plant in Eastern Texas approximately 15 miles from Tyler, Texas in Winona, Lindale and Mineola.

(Sanderson Farms)
(Sanderson Farms)

Despite the labor shortage that much of the livestock industry is facing, Sanderson Farms has hired over 1,000 people recently as a result of the company’s new complex in eastern Texas approximately 15 miles from Tyler, Texas, in Winona, Lindale and Mineola.

The company has plans to hire approximately 600 more people, according to a report from East Texas Matters (ETM). The company recently upped employee wages to US$13.55 an hour. After employees have been with the company for roughly three months pay increases to US$15.00 an hour, the report explained.The job benefits also included coverage of 75% of each employees health insurance.

The construction of the new complex cost $225 million and includes a new feed mill, hatchery, poultry processing plant and wastewater treatment facility. The processing plant packages chicken thighs, drumsticks and tenderloins. The Winona plant can process about 1.25 million birds weekly.

This complex cost more than the one the company built in January 2017 in St. Pauls, North Carolina. That complex includes a new hatchery, processing plant, wastewater facility and an expansion of the existing Kinston, North Carolina, and a feed mill. Total cost was approximately $161 million.

According to the Tyler Economic Development Council, Sanderson Farms will have a $1.6 billion impact on the East Texas economy over the first 10 years of operations, the ETM report said.

“When you bring one of these high impact employers into our local economy, it benefits everybody,” Tom Mullins, president and CEO of the Tyler Economic Development Corporation, told ETM.

The plant is expected to require the support of 80 contract growers and be able to process approximately 375 million pounds of dressed poultry meat annually.

In December 2018, the company’s CEO said Sanderson is not expecting to begin working on another new plant in 2019, however in a more recent report it was said that the company is holding off due to high steel prices.

Sanderson's process and feed strategy in eastern Texas

Eggs arrive at the hatchery in Lindale. At hatch, they are relocated to a contract grower near Mineola.  

The Mineola contract grower goes through about 18,000 pounds of feed a week for 16,000 birds. Feed is resourced from the town's mill and all raw ingredients are brought in from around the country using the railroad Sanderson Farms built.

Pic Billingsley, Sanderson's director of development and engineering told ETM: “Right now, we are producing 4,000 tons a week. This feed mill has the capacity to produce 8,200 tons.”

According to WATTAgNet Top Poultry Companies Database, Sanderson Farms was founded as a small general feed and seed business in 1947. Sanderson Farms. has since grown into one the largest chicken companies in the world. It employs 14,000. Sanderson Farms produced 86.6 million pounds of ready-to-cook chicken on a weekly basis in 2018, an increase of 4.1 million pounds – or about 5 percent – from 2017. Sanderson’s 2018 sales were $3.236 billion, a decrease from $3.342 billion in 2017. Its sales break out 58 percent foodservice, 36 percent retail and 7 percent export. Product forms are 87 percent fresh and 13 percent frozen; and 98 percent cut-up. It offers 1,091 products under the brand Sanderson Farms.

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