Good jobs and solid careers The facility, projected to begin operations in 2019, will create 1,500 new jobs, with total employment at the Benton County facility to be over 2,300 people by 2022. More than 50 percent of Simmons team members earn $16 per hour or more (nearly double Arkansas’ current minimum wage). The Benton County facility is forecasting 164 salaried positions ranging from about $40k to more than $100k. Simmons’ offers starting hourly pay up to $16.45 an hour. Simmons opened a Hiring Center in Siloam Springs in late 2018. The Hiring Center, open from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, is designed to make the application process faster and more convenient. Applicants will be able to complete their application, interviews and drug screenings in one place. The Hiring Center will process applications for 12 different Simmons facilities in the area. Interested applicants can apply online at WorkAtSimmons.com or by visiting Simmons Foods Hiring Center at The Shoppes at Siloam, 2998 Hwy 412 East, Ste 80, Siloam Springs, AR 72761— just across from the Walmart on Highway 412. This is not your grandfather’s poultry processing plant The design of Simmons’ Benton County processing facility has a substantially less intrusive exterior. The plant will look nothing like the production facilities of its kind in Northwest Arkansas—just one reason why Simmons says this isn’t your grandfather’s chicken plant. This new processing facility also represents numerous opportunities for Simmons to introduce new technologies to processes, equipment, energy use, safety, air quality, water management, water quality, and environmental stewardship. The facility will also have the latest technologies to 70 ARKANSAS GROWN ensure compliance with industryaccepted, science-based animal welfare standards. Just northwest of the new processing facility in Benton County, Simmons recently invested in the development of a new research farm. Simmons will use this fullscale, completely operational poultry farm to conduct its own research and pilot innovative techniques for improving nutrition, equipment and technology, personnel training and housing enrichments. The farm employs cloud technology allowing data collected in control rooms to be accessed remotely. This research farm will enable nutritionists to test ingredients in diets first hand. The new facility will also feature advanced technology to pre-treat wastewater in accordance with all state and federal requirements. And, from an air-quality perspective, Simmons is introducing a fleet of specially designed, enclosed tanker trucks for hauling offal products. A homegrown company firmly rooted in Arkansas “Arkansas is open for business and is the right place for agriculturalbased companies like Simmons Foods to put down their roots. That’s one of the many reasons we made the decision to build this groundup processing facility in Benton County,” said David Jackson, COO, Simmons Foods, Inc. and Affiliates.
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