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Breaking- Pilgrim's Pride cutting 1,100 jobs, closing facilities (Enviro Ethanol Victim)
Longview News Journal ^ | 03/12/08

Posted on 03/12/2008 7:18:04 AM PDT by mnehring

Pilgrim's Pride Corporation on Wednesday announced it will close a chicken processing complex and six of its 13 distribution centers in the United States.

None of the impacted facilities are in Texas.

Company officials said the action was in response to what they deemed a crisis facing the U.S. chicken industry from soaring feed-ingredient costs resulting from corn-based ethanol production.

"Our Company and industry are struggling to cope with unprecedented increases in feed-ingredient costs this year due largely to the U.S. government's ill-advised policy of providing generous federal subsidies to corn-based ethanol blenders," said Clint Rivers, president and chief executive officer.

"The cost burden is already enormous, and it's growing even larger," Rivers said. "Based on current commodity futures markets, our company's total costs for corn and soybean meal to feed our flocks in fiscal 2008 would be more than $1.3 billion higher than what they were two years ago."

These actions are part of a plan to curtail losses amid record-high costs for corn, soybean meal and other feed ingredients and an oversupply of chicken in the United States. The closings, which are expected to begin immediately and will be completed by June, will result in the elimination of approximately 1,100 jobs. Additionally, the company announced that it is in the process of reviewing other production facilities for potential mix changes, closure and/or consolidation in response to current negative industry fundamentals.

Under the plan announced Wednesday, the Pilgrim's Pride will close its chicken processing complex in Siler City, N.C., which employs approximately 830 people. Pilgrim's Pride also plans to shut down distribution centers in Oskaloosa, Iowa; Plant City and Pompano Beach, Fla.; Jackson, Miss.; Nashville, Tenn.; and Cincinnati, Ohio.

The company will provide transition programs to employees to assist them in securing new employment, filing for unemployment and other applicable benefits, officials said.

The company expects to record asset impairment and other charges related to the facility closures of approximately $35 million, $21.7 million net of tax, or $0.33 per share, Rivers said.

"We simply must find ways to pass along these higher costs," Rivers said. "Additionally, we believe that the recent impact of food-based inflation, coupled with the need for food producers to continue to increase prices for their products, will further stimulate inflation, weaken consumer confidence and negatively affect demand for products in certain market channels."


TOPICS: Breaking News; Business/Economy; US: Florida; US: Iowa; US: Mississippi; US: North Carolina; US: Ohio; US: Tennessee
KEYWORDS: agw; burningfood; chicken; energypolicy; ethanol; layoffs; pilgrimspride; poultry
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To: stainlessbanner

No society ever survived once the liberals elements took over and over governed.


21 posted on 03/12/2008 7:28:43 AM PDT by Resolute Conservative
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To: TINS

And the politicians who would rather starve people than drill for oil. /rediculous


22 posted on 03/12/2008 7:32:39 AM PDT by DonnerT (To compromise integrity is to loose it!)
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To: mnehrling

Chicken feed; any news on hen’s teeth?


23 posted on 03/12/2008 7:32:51 AM PDT by Old Professer (The critic writes with rapier pen, dips it twice, and writes again.)
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To: mnehrling

Eat mor chikin!


24 posted on 03/12/2008 7:35:11 AM PDT by Sender (Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits.)
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To: mnehrling

Chickens are coming home for Bo. He has hired illegals for years and had completely destroyed the NE Texas area where I live by importing all the illegal immigrants. He has permanently changed the face of many towns mainly Pittsburg and Mt. Pleasant to become slums with an even increasing gang problem in the schools and the smell of rendering chicken parts in the air. Until the last few years we were a quiet area great for raising kids now we have metal detectors in our 3A schools thanks to the criminal Mexicans he has brought into town and the overflow of our Pediatric Clinic and ER with non-paying, non-citizen moochers.

Even the Wal-mart has changed their buying scheme to bring in more ethnic items and you won’t hear much English spoken there . We refuse to shop in that town anymore and drive a hour way to shop for groceries and everything else.

Most people over-looked it since he gives to a lot of charities and is the #1 employer within 100 miles.


25 posted on 03/12/2008 7:37:37 AM PDT by Resolute Conservative
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To: mnehrling

Make no mistake, ALL of the big chicken processing companies are dependent on illegal labor. And to tell the truth, those are some of the few jobs this American doesn’t want to do.


26 posted on 03/12/2008 7:37:50 AM PDT by Sender (Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits.)
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To: Sender
And to tell the truth, those are some of the few jobs this American doesn’t want to do.

Driving by the plants, I think I can agree with you on this. The smell, even a half a mile away, makes you never want to eat chicken again.

27 posted on 03/12/2008 7:38:58 AM PDT by mnehring (The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me. - Ayn Rand)
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To: Resolute Conservative
...and had completely destroyed the NE Texas area where I live...
I take it we are neighbors then..
28 posted on 03/12/2008 7:39:53 AM PDT by mnehring (The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me. - Ayn Rand)
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To: mnehrling
"Our Company and industry are struggling to cope with unprecedented increases in feed-ingredient costs this year due largely to the U.S. government's ill-advised policy of providing generous federal subsidies to corn-based ethanol blenders," said Clint Rivers, president and chief executive officer.

Some questioned it from the beginning, but there comes a point when common sense is so obvious that only the most ignorant could fail to see it.

Motives are questionable for continuing after that point.

29 posted on 03/12/2008 7:42:30 AM PDT by LucyJo
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To: LucyJo
Bush ought to issue an Executive Order for drilling in ANWAR, Arctic sea, Gulf of Mexico, CA and East coast offshore......and free up the low sulpher coal that the toon made into a national monument (to his stupidity).

AND...get some oil refineries built on closed military bases as was promised .

30 posted on 03/12/2008 8:09:28 AM PDT by spokeshave (Hey GOP...NO money till border closed and criminal illegals deported)
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To: mnehrling

I don’t think most Americans have yet made the connection between soaring food prices and the half-witted, bought and paid for actions of their elected representatives in Washington. I had never seen any size eggs priced much above $1.00 per dozen, but now Extra Large are $2.50 per dozen. Flour has increased 50% or more, and significant increases in beef, chicken, etc., and most everything in the supermarket.

I wonder if it’d be possible to have a more stupid and incompetent government in Washington. It will be more than justified if they begin to feel outrage and wrath from their constituents, once they finally make the connections.


31 posted on 03/12/2008 8:09:48 AM PDT by Will88
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To: mnehrling

Why can’t they increase what they charge? All the other chicken processing firms must be dealing with food issues, increasing their costs by a similar amount.


32 posted on 03/12/2008 8:11:47 AM PDT by ConservativeMind
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To: Proverbs 3-5
Ethanol is choking off the chicken business!

Me and my chicken are choked up over this news.

33 posted on 03/12/2008 8:14:25 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd
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To: TINS

My van runs on regular unleaded.

There’s a new E85 station down the road. They offer E85 at $2.85/gallon.

Normally, my van gets 17/23 to the gallon.
If I had the E85 capable engine, (or do I actually need the FuelFlex engine to handle E85?) then my milage goes down to 12/16.

So, at $3.16/gallon which I filled up at yesterday morning, I would be able to fill up more cost-effectively with regular unleaded than this new E85 scam.

What’s the benefit? Less emissions? My van already has an emissions filter and is tested anually for excess emissions. (And as I found in Florida, if you pour a single bottle of isproypal alcohol into your fuel tank, you reduce your emissions for the duration of the test to be able to pass.)

Paul


34 posted on 03/12/2008 8:17:54 AM PDT by spacewarp (Gun control is a tight cluster grouping in the chest and one in the forehead.)
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To: Sender

“Make no mistake, ALL of the big chicken processing companies are dependent on illegal labor. And to tell the truth, those are some of the few jobs this American doesn’t want to do.”

I don’t buy that. My hometown has had a chicken processing plant since the late 1950s. It now employs around 900 and no Hispanics had ever lived in this area until about ten years ago. Even now, it’s a low percentage (about 2%), and they make up only a tiny portion of that plant’s work force.

But if illegals should be allowed to flood this area, I feel sure wages would fall and the workforce would become increasingly Hispanic, and the whites and blacks would gradually move to other work as they could find it.

These plants are dependent on illegal labor only where illegal labor has come in (or been brought in) and driven down wages and drive out the extant work force. Enforce the law and this won’t happen.

These companies have at times put up large, new plants in areas where they couldn’t possibly recruit the workforce needed. Then the illegals begin to stream in in large numbers. Enforce the law and that will also end.


35 posted on 03/12/2008 8:18:50 AM PDT by Will88
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To: Proverbs 3-5

LOL! Humor POTD!


36 posted on 03/12/2008 8:21:15 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Guns themselves are fairly robust; their chief enemies are rust and politicians) (NRA)
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To: Always A Marine

As long as the agriculture doesn’t involve livestock. We are paying TRIPLE for ethanol subsidies. First we pay the taxes, then we have to purchase the ethanol that we ALREADY PAID FOR, and then we have to pay higher food costs!


37 posted on 03/12/2008 8:21:16 AM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (G-d is not a Republican. But Satan is definitely a Democrat.)
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To: mnehrling

Sorry but this still beats, sending our money to terrorists.


38 posted on 03/12/2008 8:22:10 AM PDT by Cringing Negativism Network
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To: CedarDave
More illegal aliens out of work....

Well that's ok, then. Screw Pilgrim's Pride.

39 posted on 03/12/2008 8:30:25 AM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: Resolute Conservative

I used to travel through a lot of those towns over the years, and I’m absolutely stunned how much they’ve changed... Pittsburg Tx, Center Tx, DeQueen, Ark., etc. It’s scarey, seeing so many once-quaint locales becoming so menacing and third-worldy. And, within such a short, short time-frame. One of the main reasons the whole amnesty/illegals situation has become such a number-one hot button political issue for me.


40 posted on 03/12/2008 8:34:41 AM PDT by greene66
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