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Tyson brings Holly Farms back
Brand name returning to chicken packages; new products also planned
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Published: September 29, 2009
WILKESBORO
After Tyson Foods bought the homegrown Holly Farms in 1989, the Holly Farms labels on the chicken packages got smaller and smaller until the brand name disappeared from store shelves more than 10 years ago.
An announcement yesterday that the Holly Farms brand is coming back to more than 1,350 Food Lion and associated stores in 11 states is like the return of an old friend for people in Wilkes County -- and it's also a needed economic boost.
Most of the store-brand chicken in Food Lion stores is Tyson chicken produced at the Tyson Foods complex in Wilkesboro. Now it will carry the Holly Farms label. Tyson will also add new Holly Farms products, including a line of hand-trimmed chicken.
The Wilkesboro plant expects to add about 50 new employees immediately, Tyson Foods complex manager Mark Welborn said. After a year, the company hopes that it will be processing an extra 300,000 chickens a week. That would add more than 300 jobs, and require about 120 more poultry houses.
Some of the Holly Farms packages are already in stores. By Wednesday all the Food Lion stores, along with Food Lion LLC's Bloom and Bottom Dollar Food groceries, should be carrying Holly Farms chicken.
Holly Farms was founded in Wilkesboro in 1958. While the Wilkesboro plant will do most of the new production, Tyson plants in Monroe; in Temperanceville, Va.; and Shelbyville, Tenn., will also be involved.
Tyson Foods is Wilkes County's largest employer, with about 2,600 employees and an annual economic impact of about $200 million, according to local officials.
The plant and local pride took a hit in spring 2008 when the complex's cooked-foods plant closed, eliminating more than 400 jobs. Company officials said that the displaced workers who were willing to accept other jobs wound up employed elsewhere in the complex.
"We're thrilled for the county as a whole to have Food Lion and Tyson/Holly Farms reintroduce the Holly Farms brand," said Zach Henderson, the chairman of the Wilkes County Board of Commissioners. "I think it'll be a great thing for the companies, and it'll increase employment and do a lot for the area."
<em>mmitchell@wsjournal.com | 336-667-5691
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