ATLANTA — Considered one of the largest poultry producers in the U.S., with annual sales exceeding $2.2 billion, Wayne Farms is now selling chicken online in response to concerns over meat shortages.
The Hall County-based farm with over 11 facilities throughout the Southeast produces more than 2.6 billion pounds of poultry products each year. Due to the recent shutdown of restaurants and businesses, which Wayne Farms distributes a large portion of their product to, the company has decided to meet the needs of a new market by selling their product directly to the consumer.
"During the COVID outbreak, availability of food staples including chicken have been in short supply and the company would like to make its products available to folks locally," explained Frank Singleton, the director of media relations for Wayne Farms.
Wayne Farms announced it would partner with "The Savory Butcher", an online meat retailer, to offer reduced priced chicken to local communities. The company held its first online sale in Hall County selling over 150,000 pounds of chicken.
The business writing in a press release, "due to the overwhelming positive response from the northeast Georgia community, the companies will be expanding the sale to the Atlanta marketplace."
A subsidiary of Continental Grain Company, Wayne Farms employs more than 9,000 individuals across its 11 facilities. Singleton admits that they have had some cases of COVID-19 in their facilities, but this has not impacted the safety or distribution of their product.
"We have some facilities where we have had cases, and others where there has been none. We have food safety officials on the floor checking our staff and seeing if they have temperatures. We're dealing with it just like every other business," explained Singleton.
The chicken sale is now live and online only through this link.
Customers can purchased a sealed 40-pound case of boneless, skinless chicken breasts, thighs or tenders at $56 per case. The farm will conduct a product pickup on May 16 at Northlake Mall (4800 Briarcliff Road NE, Suite 1000, Atlanta, GA 30345) between 6 am and 7:30 pm.
Purchasers must specify individual pickup times when they place their order and proof of purchase will be required at pickup. The products will be offloaded by local volunteers from refrigerated trucks into purchasers’ vehicles. To ensure there will be enough chicken on hand to meet demand, and to adhere to social distancing requirements, there will be no onsite sales.
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