Pilgrim's Pride Hires Workers From Closed Perdue Farms, Inc.

OCT. 24, 2002  

MOOREFIELD, W.Va. -- Gov. Bob Wise today announced that Pilgrim’s Pride, a chicken processing facility with more than 1,800 employees in Moorefield, will hire workers laid off when Perdue Farms Inc. closed Oct. 11 in Petersburg.

“West Virginia’s workers are simply too valuable to lose,” Wise said. “These folks had the necessary skills and training to suit another major employer.”

As many as 350 people were laid off from Perdue Farms.

“We are familiar with the West Virginia work ethic and are very pleased to supplement our existing work force,” said Walt Shafer, senior vice president of chicken operations for Pilgrim’s Pride. “The new workers have expressed a desire to continue their careers with us, and we are more than happy to accommodate them.”

Wise added that he will continue to market the Petersburg plant aggressively.

The Pilgrim’s Pride Moorefield complex includes a hatchery, feed mill, processing plant and protein conversion facility. The original Moorefield plant was built in the 1940s as part of Rockingham Poultry Marketing Cooperative. In fiscal year 1993, Wampler Foods completed a $50 million expansion of the Moorefield plant that doubled its capacity and capabilities to meet the changing needs of its customers. In 1995, the plant was increased again by 15,000 square feet to expand product lines. The plant processed about 369 million pounds of chicken in fiscal year 2001, for an average of nearly 7 million pounds per week.

Pilgrim’s Pride has become the second largest poultry company in America and the second largest in Mexico. Today, Pilgrim’s Pride employs 24,500 people and processes about 2.5 billion pounds of chicken, 300 million pounds of turkey and 50 million dozen table eggs each year.

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