Smithfield Foods leaders say the pork processing company spent $350 million as part of its response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The money went to “protect its team members and the American food supply,” according to an announcement this week from the meat packer.
Smithfield’s Sioux Falls plant closed in April after a COVID-19 outbreak infected hundreds of workers and other Sioux Falls residents, making the facility the largest hot spot in the United States at one point in time.
The announcement this week, which draws from Smithfield’s second-quarter financials, comes less than two months after CEO Kenneth Sullivan sent a defensive 14-page letter to national lawmakers, calling those who questioned the company’s lack of preventative measures “revisionist historians.”
“Think this has been easy?” Sullivan wrote at the time. “It has not. I would gladly let you live in my shoes.”
Smithfield’s spending during the months of the pandemic ultimately led to an operating loss of $72 million for the quarter, according to the company’s financial report. That’s a 140 percent drop from year-to-year.
Broken down, Smithfield’s spending on the virus was:
- $195 million on people
- $125 million on facility-related costs
- $30 million on community-related costs
The added people-cost included full compensation for 22,000 workers who remained home during the pandemic, plus responsibility pay and hiring health care providers to work at its facilities for testing, according to Smithfield.
“Going forward, we expect performance to rebound in the fall, as our COVID-19 related costs, some of which were one-time or short-term in nature, are declining,” Sullivan said in a statement. “Throughout the pandemic, we have had two priorities, and two priorities only. First, keep our people healthy and safe. And, second, keep our nation fed. These remain our sole priorities.”
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