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Tyson Foods to Move All Corporate Executives to Springdale

3 min read

Tyson Foods Inc. of Springdale said Wednesday that it will move all executive teams to its headquarters early next year, a move that will require the meat processor to redesign and expand its corporate office there.

The publicly traded company said the plan affects about 1,000 corporate positions. No layoffs will accompany the shift, the company said.

Tyson Foods, which last week announced a reorganization of some positions at the top of the company, branded the effort to move workers to Arkansas as “OneTyson” and said it is intended to “foster collaboration, connection and creativity” among the company’s decision makers.

“Bringing our talented corporate team members and businesses together under one roof unlocks greater opportunities to share perspectives and ideas, while also enabling us to act quickly to solve problems and provide the innovative products solutions that our customers deserve and value,” Tyson Foods CEO Donnie King said in a news release.

Tyson Foods’ main headquarters are in Springdale but it also has offices in Chicago and Downers Grove, Illinois, and in Dakota Dunes, South Dakota. The company said the renovation and expansion of the Springdale headquarters will be done over several years and details would be released in the coming months.

Tyson Foods employs about 24,000 workers across all its operations in Arkansas.

The addition of 1,000 well-paid corporate employees to northwest Arkansas will put additional pressure on a region that’s been challenged by fast growth powered by the some of the world’s biggest corporations. Regional leaders have cited a need for more affordable housing and health care services, among other amenities.

“Well, you know, we’ve been growing quite a lot lately,” Nelson Peacock, president and CEO of the Northwest Arkansas Council, told Arkansas Business news partner KFSM-TV, Channel 5. “We’re one of the fastest growing regions in the country. There are pressures, obviously, as everyone knows, on our housing market, on our infrastructure, and we’ll have to continue to accommodate that we need to continue to invest in our downtowns.”

Limited inventory and strong demand have pushed area home prices to new highs, and homebuilders have had difficulty building new homes amid supply chain backups and other delays.

A regular report last month on residential home sales in Benton, Washington and Madison counties said the average sales price for homes sold during the first half of 2022 skyrocketed nearly 27% to $385,821 from $306,236 in the second half of 2021.

The latest Arvest Skyline Report report, written by the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Arkansas’ Sam M. Walton College of Business and released Sept. 13, said area home prices have risen more than 128% from a decade ago. As recently as the first half of 2020, the average home sale in the region was $263,461.

“Housing will be a challenge … it’s a challenge today,” Bill Rogers, president of the Springdale Chamber of Commerce, told KFSM. “Irrespective of the 1,000 jobs Tyson is bringing back to our town. Our region, fortunately, knows we have an issue and we have a lot of people working on that.”

The announcement comes as another northwest Arkansas company giant, Walmart Inc. of Bentonville, continues construction on its new headquarters. 

The publicly traded retailer is consolidating offices in Bentonville to one 350-acre campus along Southeast J Street. Walmart aims to open the campus in phases through 2025. It includes 12 office buildings, 11 parking garages, and 10 buildings for amenities such as a fitness center.

Last year alone, contractors on the Walmart project received permits valued at more than $630 million. Gensler of San Francisco is the project’s executive architect, working with local operators including Miller Boskus Lack Architects of Rogers, CEI Engineering Associates of Bentonville, Nabholz Construction Corp. of Conway and the Springdale office of Flintco LLC of Tulsa.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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