Butterball will close its turkey further processing plant in Jonesboro, Arkansas, effective February 3, 2025.
“We deliberated for a long time about this difficult decision, as we know it will affect about 180 team members and their families,” Jay Jandrain, president and CEO of Butterball stated. “We are committed to helping our team members as they determine next steps in their careers.”
According to a spokesperson for the company, employees were notified of the closure at a town hall meeting, where they received information about severance options, benefits and Butterball’s workforce support services through the transition.
The company also submitted Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notifications (WARN) to local officials in connection with the planned closure of the Jonesboro plant.
As a further processing facility, the Jonesboro plant receives products from other Butterball plants to process, pack and ship. The company intends to move production done in Jonesboro to other facilities within Butterball’s network.
Butterball will provide workforce support services in partnership with Arkansas Workforce Services as needed, including job fairs, resume-building workshops and interviewing classes.
The company also stated that all employees who work through their scheduled end-of-service date will receive medical benefits through the end of February.
Headquartered in Garner, North Carolina, Butterball LLC is a vertically integrated turkey company owned by Seaboard Corporation and Goldsboro Milling Co. It ranks as the second-largest turkey producer in the United States, having produced 1.06 billion pounds of turkey during the past year.
In addition to Arkansas and North Carolina, Butterball has operations in Missouri and Illinois.
The planned shuttering of the Butterball plant is one of several planned meat and poultry plant closures in the United States announced so far in December. Tyson Foods earlier this month announced that it would close a plant in Emporia, Kansas, and two plants in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
