House of Raeford Farms to re-open Mocksville poultry plant

As many as 200 jobs may be returning to Mocksville with the announcement Tuesday that a chicken processing plant is re-opening.

House of Raeford Farms, Inc., one of the country's largest poultry producers, bought the plant at a bankruptcy auction in October.

The plant closed more than two years ago when Omtron decided to shut it down. Omtron, a Ukrainian company, had owned the plant less than a year before deciding to close it. They had bought it from Townsends Inc. which operated the plant for years before selling it during bankruptcy proceedings in 2011. At the time, it was one of the biggest employers in Davie County.

Terry Bralley is president of the Davie County Economic Development Commission. He says the plant's re-opening will be a boost to the county's economy.

More than 30 people have already started working at the plant and a total of about 200 are expected to be hired over the next two years. Bralley says House of Raeford executives considered removing equipment for use in their other plants and then selling the building. Instead, they decided to upgrade the plant and re-open it.