Hundreds of Tyson Foods Inc. employees from two of its largest business units plan to leave the company as it consolidates its corporate offices to northwest Arkansas next year, according to people familiar with the matter.
The largest U.S. meat supplier by sales said in October that it planned to close its offices in Chicago, Downers Grove, Ill., and Dakota Dunes, S.D., which currently house many of Tyson’s
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corporate employees in its prepared foods, beef and pork divisions. About 1,000 employees total work in those locations, the company has said.
Tyson gave workers until Nov. 14 to decide if they would relocate to the company’s Springdale, Ark., headquarters in early 2023. The company has said the planned office closures are part of an effort to consolidate its corporate employees in one place, to improve collaboration and speed up decision making.
Roughly three-quarters of the 500 employees in Tyson’s South Dakota office told the company they wouldn’t make the move to Arkansas and planned to depart by about the time the office closes in mid-2023, according to people familiar with the matter. More than 90% of the employees in Tyson’s Chicago office have declined to relocate, the people said.
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
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