Butterball Laying Off 150 at Huntsville Plant
by February 23, 2009 12:00 am 63 views
Butterball LLC of Garner, N.C., has announced it will cut about 150 positions at its Huntsville facility.
A news release by the company said it anticipates the impact on fulltime employees should be minimal at the current attrition rate. The staff changes are scheduled to begin around March 9. The company said the layoffs “are necessary due to increased grain and other input costs and future demand projections.”
“During the past year, we have had to make many difficult decisions regarding the fiscal health of our business,” said Keith Shoemaker, CEO of Butterball. “With this country’s current economic situation, knowing that we have to reduce our number of employees is all the more difficult. Government ethanol subsidies and record high fuel prices for much of 2008 contributed to a major increase in our operating costs. It is sad that our government continues to put the poultry industry, both our farmers and our workers, at a disadvantage with its subsidies for the ethanol industry.”
Butterball’s actions are part of an operational strategy to curtail losses amid record-high production costs.