March 16, 2007

US town urges Sara Lee to maintain good condition of closing plant
 

Town officials of West Point, Mississippi want Sara Lee Corporation to keep the plant it is closing in good shape before it ships out so it might be attractive to another manufacturer.

Mayor Scott Ross said the Illinois-based food processor, which plans to abandon the facility on March 30, should maintain the plant so that it is "still viable for another operator."

Nearly 1,200 employees will be out of work when Sara Lee closes its pork processing and FlavoTech spice production operations in West Point, an unpopular decision among the locals

The plant has been a fixture in West Point since 1909, when JC Bryan opened a meat market. His sons later expanded it into a processing facility and operated until 1968, when they sold to Consolidated Foods, which became Sara Lee Corp.