/ Source: The Associated Press
Smithfield Foods say it plans to cut 1,800 jobs and close six factories as part of a restructuring.
Smithfield Foods Inc. announced the closures and layoffs Tuesday as part of a plan to consolidate and streamline its pork business. The company plans to save $125 million a year by 2011.
To help fund the restructuring, the company will take a pre-tax charge of $85 million in its fiscal third-quarter that ended Feb. 1, as well as another $30 million over the next three quarters. It will spend $53 million in capital expenditures related to the closures.
The plants are expected to close by December 2009, the company said.
