Peco Foods’ Pocahontas-area complex still hiring workers, job total could reach 1,400

Peco Foods Inc. has hired more than 500 workers, and could employ more than 1,000 at its new poultry processing plant in Pocahontas. The 272,000-square-foot plant cost $165 million to build, according to the company’s original estimates.

It was built on 200 acres in the city’s industrial park.

When the plant will be at full operation is uncertain, Peco Pocahontas plant Human Resources Director Kerry Roemer told Talk Business & Politics. The total number of employees could top 1,400 at the three facilities once the operation is in full swing, she said. That’s a couple of hundred more jobs than were projected when the plant was announced more than two years ago.

The hatchery is up and running, and all departments are in some level of operation as of this week. There won’t be a formal grand opening anytime soon, she said.

“This is probably the biggest economic development project of our lifetimes,” Randolph County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Tim Scott told Talk Business & Politics. “The economic impact will be incredible.”

When the company announced in 2014 it would build a poultry processing plant and a hatchery in Pocahontas, and a $35 million feed mill in Corning, the projected payroll for the entire operation was set at about $20 million per year. Any dollar added to a local economy turns over 6.5 times according to many economists, which means Peco could add more than $100 million annually to the economy in Northeast Arkansas, Scott said.

The benefits go beyond the workers hired at the plant, hatchery, and feed mill. At least 400 chicken houses have been contracted in Randolph County and there are almost 1,000 houses total contracted in the region to provide chickens to the processing plant, according to figures released.

This will also employ truckers moving the chickens and feed, and it will have secondary economic benefits like providing more fuel, restaurant, and other customers in the general area, Scott said.

County and city sales tax receipts should also grow in volume, and it’s been reported that local officials anticipate a spike in the local housing market because of the influx of workers to the area.

Tuscaloosa, Ala.-based Peco Foods is the eighth largest poultry producer in the U.S., according to the National Poultry and Food Distributors Association. The company began its Arkansas operations in 2011 when it opened a poultry processing plant in Batesville, and then opened a feed mill in nearby Newark.

The company has held numerous jobs fairs in recent months to fill its employee roster. At a job fair in July, 431 people inquired about jobs, Roemer said. She described the response as “great.” Job fairs are slated in the upcoming months, and the company is likely to keep holding them into the near future, she said. Social media has been abuzz with workers commenting about the good work conditions and receiving their first paychecks.

“This is the kind of job creation we need,” Scott said.