Allen Harim, will consolidate its processing operation to one Delaware location and close its Cordova plant in July.
Cordova is about 35 miles west of Milford on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. The location is about an hour’s drive from the Harbeson site.
The company took pains to note that the move would not affect the company’s growers or growth plans.
The closure will impact about 300 employees at that facility, who will be offered jobs at the company’s other locations including a hatchery, feed mill and truck shop in Seaford, a hatchery in Dagsboro and main processing facility in Harbeson, a community about 12 miles west of Rehoboth Beach.
Allen Harim earlier received an OK to double production at the Harbeson site from the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.
The expansion is contingent on improvements to the wastewater treatment system. Delaware Public Media reported the decision was sharply criticized by neighbors in fast-growing Sussex County, an area where far fewer families have ties to the poultry industry.
According to Steve Evans, CEO of Allen Harim, a combination of factors contributed to the decision, including the age of the facility, a shift in the company’s product mix and a desire to improve the company’s competitive position in order to assure greater efficiency.
“We are very grateful to our Cordova-based employees, some of whom have been with us for a very long time,” said Evans. “We will do everything possible to help them continue their employment with us, or to help them find other opportunities.”
Allen Harim’s human resources department will coordinate with state and local officials to leverage all available resources to assist employees. The company plans to open an on-site career center to help employees during this transition, a release stated.
Much of the processing equipment will be moved to the company’s Harbeson, DE facility in coming months.
Last month, Allen Harim became one of the first chicken companies in the nation to provide 100-percent vegetarian feed for its birds. It also announced that its signature brand, Nature’s Sensation would now be positioned as “no antibiotics ever” – again one of the first in the nation to make that commitment.
The company has seen steady growth since it was purchased by the Harim Group in 2011, a release stated. That year, Allen Harim employed 1,229 people. The company currently employs more than 1,800 people in the United States, as well as more than 230 independent growers and 20 company farms across Delmarva.
About half those farms are located in Maryland. The consolidation of processing operations will not affect any poultry growers in Maryland, Delaware or North Carolina.
“We’ve worked very hard over the past three years to take this company in a new and focused direction and to return it to a profitable operation that will continue to grow and employ people on Delmarva,” Evans added. “We are following a strategic plan that achieves our goal of a sustainable company moving forward.”
The Cordova processing facility was built in 1945 by Cordova Poultry Company and purchased by the former Allen Family Foods in 1971. It was later owned by Esskay, and then leased to Ralston-Purina. In the last two decades, it has processed about 600,000 chickens a week, primarily rotisserie chicken and whole bird packaging, for markets in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.
Allen Harim also has breeding operations in Liberty, NC; a hatchery in Dagsboro, DE and a hatchery and feed mill in Seaford.
The company employs more than 1,800 people in the United States, as well as more than 230 independent growers and 20 company farms across Delmarva. The company is part of a Korean-based poultry company.
It purchased Allen Family Foods assets out of bankruptcy proceedings and had acquired a former pickle processing plant in Sussex County for warehousing and possible production.
Talk of production plans at the Sussex plant led to fierce opposition from neighbors and the company announced it would instead lease portions of the former Vlasic site. The company will move ahead with plans with environmental clean-up at the site
