Tyson Foods on Thursday said it will invest $48 million to expand its Pine Bluff poultry processing plant.
The project, set for completion later this year, is expected to create 70 jobs and increase the plant's "fully cooked" operations that handle chicken tenders, strips, wings and other fried products. The company said it will also add automated processes to the site's production lines.
Tyson recently spent $425 million on a new poultry complex in rural Tennessee as it expands to meet growing demand for fried and fresh meats. It's also expanding a beef and pork plant in South Carolina.
Donnie King, Tyson's chief operating officer and president of poultry, said in a written statement that "we're investing in projects that meet the needs of our customers and consumers."
The Pine Bluff facility, built and opened in 1991, processes cooked chicken items for U.S. grocery stores and restaurants. It had a staff of 1,100 last year and a payroll of $47 million. The annual payout for farmers who raise chickens for the plant was more than $27 million, according to Tyson. Starting wages at the plant are at least $15 an hour.
More companies are investing in automation for a number of reasons, including to fill unwanted jobs. Tyson researchers have been testing robotics and automation systems that it can use at processing plants and other facilities to make operations more efficient.
"Tyson has built its name on the company's ability to see a need early and fill it with a quality product," Gov. Asa Hutchinson said in prepared remarks. "Nearly 100 years later, the family and the company continue the tradition, which has made life better for the thousands of people who have worked for the company."
Arkansas is one of the nation's top broiler chicken producing states, second only to Georgia, with local growers raising on average more than 1 billion chickens per year, industry data show. That's more than 6 billion pounds of processed poultry, according to the National Chicken Council.
More than 24,000 Arkansans are employed by Tyson, with an annual payroll of more than $1.4 billion. The company paid poultry growers across the state more than $237 million last year and estimated its total statewide impact to be $2.1 billion.
The Arkansas Economic Development Commission offered Tyson a job creation tax credit and a sales and use tax refund for its Pine Bluff expansion, as well as up to $254,000 in customized training grants, spokesman Chelsea O'Kelley said in an email Thursday.
Allison Thompson, president and chief executive of the Economic Development Alliance for Jefferson County, said she was very excited to hear that Tyson was going to invest more in the county and create more jobs.
"It's a positive all around," Thompson said.
Tyson shares fell 54 cents, to close Thursday at $79.04 on the New York Stock Exchange.