Pilgrim's Pride to Close Processing Facility in Dalton, Ga., as Part of Reorganization

/PRNewswire / -- Pilgrim's Pride Corporation (Pink Sheets: PGPDQ) today announced plans to close its chicken processing plant in Dalton, Ga., within 60 days and consolidate production at the company's processing facility in Chattanooga, Tenn. These actions are aimed at improving the company's capacity utilization and reducing its costs.

Approximately 280 employees who work at the Dalton plant will be affected by the closing. Pilgrim's Pride will provide transition programs to employees whose positions are eliminated to assist them in securing new employment, filing for unemployment and obtaining other applicable benefits. The hatchery in Cohutta, Ga., will continue to operate. Other live production operations will also continue to function, but as a part of the Chattanooga complex or other nearby operations. Approximately 120 independent contract growers who currently supply birds to the Dalton processing plant will be transitioned to begin supplying the company's Chattanooga plant or other nearby company facilities within approximately 90 days.

There will not be any disruption in the supply of product to retail, foodservice and industrial customers as a result of closing the Dalton facility.

"The closing of the Dalton plant is part of our plan to maximize our capacity utilization and operate more efficiently as a market-driven company," said Don Jackson, president and chief executive officer. "We will continue to look for opportunities to improve our cost structure as we reorganize the company. While the decision to eliminate jobs is always painful, we are taking decisive steps now to protect the greatest number of jobs in order to restructure our business and ultimately emerge from Chapter 11 as a stronger, more efficient competitor."

As previously announced, the Company filed voluntary Chapter 11 petitions on December 1, 2008. The Chapter 11 cases are being jointly administered under case number 08-45664. The Company's operations in Mexico and certain operations in the United States were not included in the filing and continue to operate as usual outside of the Chapter 11 process.

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Cooper Tire Announces Intent To Close Albany, Ga., Facility

/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Cooper Tire & Rubber Company (NYSE:CTB) today announced the pending closure of its manufacturing facility in Albany, Ga. This announcement follows a network capacity study analyzing the Company's optimal manufacturing footprint in the United States. The impact on net profit of this closure is estimated to be $150 million to $175 million in restructuring charges, between 50 and 60 percent of which will be non-cash charges. Annual savings after implementation are estimated at between $75 million and $80 million. A portion of these savings will begin to materialize in 2009 as production from the plant is moved to other locations.

United States manufacturers have come under intense pressure in recent years from increased lower-priced imports and softening domestic demand for products. Roy Armes, chief executive officer, said, "This was a difficult decision and we regret the impact it will have on our employees in Albany and the surrounding community. The detailed study we performed was fair, objective, and conclusive that we needed to consolidate our capacity and close one of our U.S. facilities. The government and community agencies were actively engaged and involved and offered a high level of support, but the final outcome was clear."

The facility was acquired by Cooper in 1990 and employs approximately 1,400. Cooper intends to realign the mix of products at its remaining U.S. facilities located in Findlay, Ohio, Texarkana, Ark., and Tupelo, Miss., to meet customer demand.

Armes continued, "Cooper customers in the North American market must have competitive products of the highest quality from Cooper in order to grow and prosper in this intense market. This capacity rationalization will help us meet that demand. Employees in Albany were notified of the outcome and will be provided support as the facility winds down operations in the next 12 months. We appreciate the hard work and efforts that our employees have always demonstrated and will assist them where possible through this transition. Unfortunately, this was a very necessary action to position Cooper to compete in a global market environment.

"The current state of the economy and demand for our products in the United States has caused us to rethink how we could best leverage our fixed costs. We will also continue with our existing ongoing lean, six sigma, and automation initiatives to improve our cost structure throughout our operations, in addition to this capacity rationalization effort. This capacity reduction, along with improvements at our other facilities, will allow Cooper to optimize our global footprint and capitalize on current and future market opportunities."

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Famous Dave's Announces Closure of Atlanta Market and Lease Terminations

(BUSINESS WIRE)--Famous Dave's of America, Inc. (NASDAQ: DAVE) today announced it has closed its three restaurants in Atlanta, Georgia as a result of current and expected continuing cash losses from those units. The company continues to have discussions with the landlords of these restaurants regarding a buyout of these leases.

The company also announced that it has terminated two leases for restaurants expected to open in 2009, in Hoffman Estates, Illinois and Hyattsville, Maryland. Famous Dave’s could recognize up to $2.5 million in charges in its fiscal 2008 fourth quarter related to the Atlanta closings and lease terminations.

“We made the decision to take these actions in order to preserve cash and respond appropriately to the current slowdown in market conditions,” said Christopher O’Donnell, president and CEO of Famous Dave’s of America. “With consumer confidence at an all-time low and retail spending dropping at significant rates, we need to ensure that our balance sheet and cash flow are strong and able to weather any continued softness in the economy.”

The company said it is reevaluating its future sites based on changing site demographic profiles and commercial real estate values, improving the unit level economics of its existing restaurant base and developing and refining a smaller, more cost-effective prototype. Operationally, the company is focusing on making sure that its organization is of an appropriate size to maximize its general and administrative resources and eliminate unnecessary expenditures.

“All of our priorities – from the size, structure and growth rate of our restaurant base to our day-to-day operations – remain unchanged from our recent conference call,” O’Donnell said. “We will continue to focus on product enhancement, and are working hard to enhance the ‘Famous’ experience our customers have long associated with our brand. This is a time to seek excellence and innovation in our operations with creative food offerings and a heightened level of customer service."

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