Hundreds of Tyson Foods staff leaving the company, including senior managers

By Senad Karaahmetovic 

After Tyson Foods (NYSE:) announced plans in October to shut down two of its corporate offices, many of the company’s employees working in these offices declined to relocate to other offices, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

Tyson Foods plans to have a single corporate office at its global headquarters in Springdale, Arkansas, meaning that sites in Chicago and South Dakota are to be closed. Around 1,000 employees work at these two locations.

“Those locations will eventually close as all corporate team members will be given the option to relocate to Springdale and north-west Arkansas,” a Tyson spokesperson said.

“We currently have space for all impacted team members if they choose to relocate to northwest Arkansas. There are no lay-offs associated with this announcement.”

However, the WSJ now reports that hundreds of staff declined to relocate and plan to leave the company. Nearly 400 out of about 500 employees in Tyson’s South Dakota office told the company they wouldn’t make the move to Arkansas.

“I’m confident the plan we have in place ensures business continuity and positions us for long-term success,” Tyson Chief Executive Donnie King told WSJ. “We knew there would be a variety of responses when we announced the consolidation of our corporate locations.”

Among those leaving the company are also senior managers, like the senior vice president of Tyson’s pork business, Leah Andersen, the report added.

TSN stock is down about 1% in pre-market Thursday.