Pilgrim’s Pride recently rejected a $32 million bid for the plant, and another potential buyer was only allowed to fly over the plant because the company allows bidders to visit only after demonstrating financial viability, among other criteria. Critics argue that Pilgrim's asking price of $80 million is too high and exceeds the $50 million appraisal confirmed by Etter and Pilgrim’s own analysis. Another company plant in El Dorado, Ark., is on the market, but that town says it gave up trying to find a buyer after Pilgrim rejected a bid from a local company. The company has creditors who want it to emerge strongly from bankruptcy rather than sell assets now. The company's attitude has caused a rift with town officials, who say there has been “no meeting in the middle.”
With a sale seeming unlikely in the near future, the domino effect of the closure is bleak. Insurance agent Alan Carter told Etter that 35 percent of his revenue came from insuring chicken houses and related operations. The region’s medical center is preparing for more uninsured patients, and the city will likely have to raise taxes to offset the money lost from their largest sewage and water customer. And at home, local chicken farmers are quickly running out of money and into debt. (WSJ photo: Residents welcome a potential buyer) For the 11,000 or so residents of Douglas and 25,000 in Coffee County, hundreds of cavernous, metal-and-wood chicken houses in the county are reminders of the loss. Farmers told Etter that the structures were worth at least $200,000 each when filled with chickens but are now virtually worthless. Walt Dockery, a fourth-generation farmer who derived about 90 percent of his income from chicken farming, says Pilgrim’s Pride is crippling the community. "They just have no consideration for what they're doing to the people down here.” (Read more)
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