Tyson Foods, one of the world’s largest meat producers, announced it would relocate about 1,000 corporate positions from the Chicago area and South Dakota to its headquarters in Springdale, Arkansas. The relocation, announced Wednesday, is set to begin early next year.
“The move will foster closer collaboration, enhance team member agility and enable faster decision making, positioning Tyson to win with its team members, customers and consumers,” Tyson said in a news release on the move. President and CEO Donnie King added “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 is the latest company to leave Chicago, followed by Boeing, Caterpillar and Citadel. Citadel openly blamed Chicago crime as one of the reasons for the company’s departure to Florida. Citadel CEO Ken Griffin said Chicago employees became crime victims and workers kept requesting to be relocated.
McDonald’s, which has its headquarters in Chicago, criticized the city for crime. CEO Chris Kempczinski recently said that crime is “seeping into every corner of our city.” The fast food giant has no plans on leaving Chicago, but still openly criticized the city’s flaws last month. He said it has been difficult recruiting employees and executives to McDonald’s locations in Chicago.
“We have violent crime that’s happening in our restaurants … we’re seeing homelessness issues in our restaurants. We’re having drug overdoses that are happening in our restaurants,” he said last month at the Economic Club of Chicago. “So we see in our restaurants, every single day, what’s happening in society at large.”
Tyson has had a rocky year because of inflation. Shares of Tyson are down about 25% for the year. Tyson said the city’s crime was not a factor in their decision to relocate.
