News

Smithfield to close Sioux City Morrell plant

John Morrell & Co.—a division of Smithfield Foods—says it will close its hog processing and fresh meat processing plant in Sioux City, Iowa.  The plant’s last day of operation will be April 20^th.

Morrell president Joseph Sebring calls it “a necessary business decision.”  He said the Sioux City plant was one of the oldest, most outdated and least efficient plants in the Smithfield system.

Smithfield CEO Larry Pope hinted a couple of months ago that the company was having trouble purchasing enough hogs for some of its Midwest plants, and that one or more of those facilities may be targeted for closure.  In a news release, the company says that three other Smithfield plants—located in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Denison, Iowa and Crete, Nebraska—have the capacity to partially absorb the number of hogs that are currently being processed at Sioux City.  It says some of the Sioux City production will be transferred to those plants in the near term, but indicates it will not be hiring additional employees.

Smithfield also stated that it has no further plans for plant closures “in the foreseeable future.”

The Sioux City plant closure will result in 1,450 jobs being eliminated.