Tyson Foods to close two chicken plants, affecting hundreds in Virginia, Arkansas

March 14 (UPI) -- Tyson Foods has announced that it will be closing two chicken plants because of a drastic drop in sales over the past year.

The plants in Glen Allen, Va., and Van Buren, Ark., will be shut down in May, affecting the 1,661 employees who work at the two facilities.

In a statement to CNBC, Tyson said "while the decision was not easy, it reflects our broader strategy to strengthen our poultry business by optimizing operations and utilizing full available capacity at each plant."

The company says it will help transfer some of the affected employees to other plants.

In October, Tyson announced that it would relocate approximately 1,000 of its corporate staff in Illinois and South Dakota to Arkansas.

The company says inefficiencies in how it manages plants has been largely responsible for recent significant drops in operating income and profits.

The food and beverage industry has faced major layoffs in the past year, with PepsiCo, Impossible Foods, and Beyond Meat restructuring their work forces.