SPRINGDALE, Ark. – A group of Tyson Foods employees presented a proposal to build a new processing facility near an existing poultry plant in Green Forest, Arkansas. The proposal was made April 13 to the finance committee of the Carroll County Quorum. The new plant is valued at approximately $136 million and would create roughly 85 jobs.
The proposed 200,000-sq.-ft. facility would be built across the street from the existing Green Forest plant with a corridor connecting the two facilities. Upgrades would include new equipment, production lines and processes and technology to enhance food safety, quality and workplace safety. The new facility would expand Tyson’s partially cooked capacity while reducing transportation costs associated with moving products to other locations for further processing.
Construction on the new facility could begin in the summer, with completion expected in 2017. Tyson noted that the new plant would not change the number of chickens grown for processing in Carroll County.
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| Noel White, president of the poultry segment at Tyson |
“This project would allow us to better serve our foodservice customers through improved product mix and greater efficiencies,” Noel White, president of poultry, said in a news release. “This is the first new plant construction project Tyson Foods has proposed to build in a number of years, and we’re hopeful we can partner with Carroll County and the AEDC to invest in our home state.”
Tyson said “the project is contingent in part” on the approval of tax abatements from the Carroll County Quorum Court and tax credits from the Arkansas Economic Development Commission (AEDC).
Franz Foods built the existing Green Forest plant in 1959, and Tyson Foods purchased the plant in 1967. Currently, the facility produces partially cooked chicken products, such as nuggets and portioned fillets, for foodservice and retail customers. More than 1,250 employees work at the plant
