Tyson Foods to shutter two more plants, cut 229 jobs

Two small Tyson Foods’ plants in Philadelphia are slated to close over the next two months. The Original Philly cook beef plant and the Original Philly raw plant acquired by Tyson Foods in 2017 will close by Jan. 31.

The news came from a federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN notice) filed with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania this past week.

The plants employ 229 workers who prepare Philly steak products for Tyson’s prepared food business. Tyson has not yet said if the production will be shifted to another facility. Tyson Foods said it is working with state and local officials to provide additional resources to those who are impacted by the plant closures.

“After careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to close our two Prepared Foods facilities in Philadelphia to increase the efficiency of our operations. We understand the decision’s impact on our team members and the local community,” Tyson Foods said in an email to Talk Business & Politics.

The Original Philly closures comes on the heels of the shuttering of a large beef processing plant located in Emporia, Kan., which will eliminate more than 800 jobs by mid-February.

When Tyson acquired the cheesesteak business in 2017, company execs said it was a natural fit for the protein giant’s foodservice portfolio. Tyson has since closed eight plants over the past couple of years, including a pork processing facility in Perry, Iowa, and six poultry plants in Van Buren and North Little Rock, Ark.; Dexter and Noel, Mo.’  Glen Allen, Va.; and Corydon, Ind.

The plant closures come as Tyson Foods faces weak low cattle herd numbers and higher live cattle costs which lead to compressed margins. Tyson’s beef segment lost $291 million for fiscal 2024, which ended Sept. 30, a wide swing from the gain of $233 million in the previous year.

The deep losses late in the year and the weaker prospects for 2025 reversed what Tyson Foods said in September. Brady Stewart, Tyson’s group president for beef and pork and the chief supply chain officer, said in September there were no plant closures on the horizon. At an investor conference on Sept. 5, Stewart said the company aims to ensure its plant network is working at optimum efficiency.

“We really like our asset base and our path forward with our current asset base,” he said at the time.