Pinnacle Foods Sale Could Affect Other Businesses Too
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JACKSON, Tenn. — Pinnacle Foods got a new owner on Monday after Hillshire Farms announced its purchase of the company for $4.23 billion. Pinnacle employs hundreds in West Tennessee, making it one of the top employers in Madison County. Workers at a gas station across from the Pinnacle plant said half of its business comes from employees between shifts and on their breaks. They said the fate of their business lies in the hands of the new owner of Pinnacle Foods. “We [are] so busy over here when they’re leaving work and on lunch breaks too,” Sam Silah, a gas station worker, said. “When they’re on lunch breaks [we’re busy] too.” Siilah said the news of the Pinnacle Foods buyout leaves him wondering about his job. “I’m worried they’re going to shut it down and nobody’s going to be coming by here [any] more. We worry about the business,” Siilah said. Jessie Hopson, a gas station worker who said he used to work at the plant, said many of the employees hang out here before and after work. “It would take out of his business because Pinnacle, they run shifts, second shifts, third shift. When people get off they come here,” Hopson said. Pinnacle Foods is the eighth largest employer in Jackson and has nearly 600 people on its payroll. Hopson said he worries for many families in Jackson. “For them to lose their jobs, take away their income, stop them from feeding their children, that would devastate any family,” Hopson said. Hillshire Farms has not announced what it plans to do with the Jackson facility. Hopson said if the worst happens, he hopes loyal customers will be enough to keep the Food Mart open. “It would devastate a lot of things business-wise, but you know I think the area is pretty well and we will survive,” Hopson said. Owners of Whitehall Food Mart said even a reduction in employment at Pinnacle will mean a loss for the business. No one at the Jackson plant was authorized to comment about the change in ownership.
