DICKSON, Tenn. – Conagra Brands will close a Tennessee Pride sausage manufacturing plant in 2021. Production will shift to a Pinnacle Foods plant in Jackson, Tennessee. The company said more than 300 workers will be affected.

“Currently, the Dickson facility is the only one in our network that makes Odom’s Tennessee Pride breakfast sandwiches," said Terah Fox, mamager, communications and external relations at Conagra Brands. “After its closure, these products will be made at other facilities in our network, primarily the one in Jackson, Tennessee. We are currently reviewing all of our options regarding the Dickson facility post-closure.” 

Conagra acquired Pinnacle Foods in 2018. That same year, Conagra Brands relaunched the Tennessee Pride brand with breakfast and handheld options such as sausage, egg and cheese with a buttermilk biscuit and honey biscuit wrapped sausage and sausage and gravy stuffed biscuits, among other products.

“We literally did nothing with it (Odom’s Tennessee Pride) after we acquired it, but it’s a great brand, great quality,” CEO Sean Connolly said at the time. “It’s getting a full makeover.”

In more Conagra Brands news, the company will invest $31,900,000 in a facility in Fort Madison, Iowa. The plant expansion will involve significant investment of machinery and equipment, but it will not grow the physical footprint of the building, according to the Lee County Economic Development Group (EDG).

The facility will produce canned beans once the equipment installation is completed at the end of July. The new production will add approximately 91 jobs at a facility that currently employs 450 workers.