Pilgrim’s $400 Million Kitchen Will Test Walker County

Pilgrim’s is putting up a $400 million cooked-chicken plant in LaFayette, Ga., after its Just Bare brand already cleared $1 billion in 2025 retail sales. More than 630 jobs are due when the first phase opens in early 2027, in a county that had only 1,068 people out of work in August 2026.

Governor Brian Kemp’s office framed the project as another win for Georgia agriculture when the project was first announced on July 24, 2025. The delayed hire date, the brand’s head start, and a row of houses across the street are the parts that last after the shovels went in.

A 100-Acre Kitchen Off Highway 27

The plant sits in the Walker County Business Park on a 100-acre site north of Audia Plastics, off Highway 27 near LaFayette. County officials said the first phase is about 300,000 square feet and is scheduled to open in early 2027.

This is a prepared foods plant, not a slaughterhouse. Walker County’s own groundbreaking note said the line will turn out fully cooked items such as chicken nuggets and lightly breaded breast strips for grocery and club stores under Just Bare and Pilgrim’s. Gold Kist is on the brand list too. Fabio Sandri, chief executive of Pilgrim’s, told the state in July 2025 that the spend would “allow further growth of our prepared foods business” in retail and foodservice.

Pilgrim’s already supports about 7,500 jobs in Georgia across seven production plants, plus feed mills and hatcheries. The company said in February 2026 that it employs approximately 63,000 people and runs plants in 14 U.S. states plus Puerto Rico, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and continental Europe. Adding more than 630 jobs in LaFayette would take the Georgia headcount to about 8,130 if the older plants hold steady.

THE LAFAYETTE BUILD CALENDAR

1. July 24, 2025: Kemp’s office says Pilgrim’s will invest $400 million and add 630 jobs at a multi-phase prepared foods plant in LaFayette.
2. August 2025: Walker County commissioners approve a 10-year payment-in-lieu-of-taxes schedule for the project and agree to help with road and sewer to the property line.
3. November 13, 2025: The company breaks ground. Sandri says the firm wants to be “a true community partner” and will pick a Hometown Strong project later.
4. February 19, 2026: JBS, the majority owner of Pilgrim’s, says the Walker County plant “is currently being built” to make Just Bare products.
5. Early 2027: First-phase completion and the start of hiring, per the company and the county.

The Georgia Department of Economic Development worked the site with the Walker County Development Authority and Georgia Quick Start, the state’s free training unit for new plants. The Georgia Economic Developers Association later named the project its 2025 Mid-Size Community Deal of the Year, with the Walker County Development Authority as the local partner.

Just Bare Crossed $1 Billion Before the Plant Opens

The business case is no longer a forecast. In a February 19, 2026 release from Greeley, Colo., Pilgrim’s said Just Bare surpassed $1 billion in annual retail sales in 2025, with a 45% annual growth rate.

The same release said the brand now holds the No. 1 sales pace in fully cooked chicken and grew its market share from 1% to 13% in three years. Frozen fully cooked items account for more than $750 million of that total. The Oven Roasted line is sold on a 1.5-minute prep time and a clean-label pitch: chicken raised with no antibiotics, no additives, and no preservatives, under the line “Bare is Better.”

JUST BARE IN 2025

• Retail sales: More than $1 billion for the year.
• Growth rate: 45% annual, which Pilgrim’s called the fastest pace in the category.
• Share: From 1% to 13% of the fully cooked chicken category in three years.
• Frozen cooked line: More than $750 million in annual sales.

Sergio Nahuz, head of prepared foods, tied that run to “people, plants, and brands.” The Walker County kitchen is one of those plants, and it is arriving after the brand already made its billion. That is catch-up capacity, not a speculative bet on a product no one has bought yet.

Georgia still supplies the birds. USDA figures for 2025 put the state first in the country by head count, at 1.317 billion broilers. University of Georgia farm-gate accounts for 2024 put broilers at $6.1 billion, or 36.1% of the state’s commodity value, which is why Kemp called agriculture the state’s No. 1 industry when he rolled out the LaFayette deal.

How 630 Hires Land on a 3.2% Jobless Rate

Walker County is not sitting on a pool of idle plant workers. Georgia Department of Labor county figures for August 2026 show a labor force of 33,053, with 31,985 people employed and 1,068 unemployed. That is Walker County’s 3.2% unemployment rate, a touch under the state’s 3.4% that month.

More than 630 hires equal about 59% of the people then counted as unemployed, and about 1.9% of the whole labor force. Against the 14,922 covered jobs on local payrolls, the plant is a 4.2% jolt.

WALKER COUNTY LABOR VERSUS THE PLANT

Covered jobs and resident employment are not the same pile. About 17,000 more residents are employed than the county’s payroll count, which is the usual sign of people driving out, many of them toward Chattanooga. The plant can hire by pulling those commuters home, by bidding against other local manufacturers, or by bringing people in. It cannot hire 630 people from the unemployed list alone without emptying most of that list.

LaFayette itself is a city of 6,967. The county’s 2025 population estimate is 71,924, up 2,584 from 69,340 in 2024. The planning office issued 276 permits for new single-family homes in unincorporated Walker County in 2024, so the housing pipe was already open before the kitchen was announced. Average covered pay of $45,778 is the local yardstick any new plant wage will be measured against.

Angie Teems, Walker County’s chairwoman and CEO, called the project “a tremendous opportunity” for residents “who want to work where they live,” and she noted Pilgrim’s already buys from local poultry growers. Andy Arnold, LaFayette’s mayor and chairman of the Walker County Development Authority, went further on the day of the groundbreaking, putting the spillover at “1,100 families” and saying retailers had started calling instead of stores closing.

The Houses Sit Across the Street

The labor math is county-wide. The noise and odor argument is next door. Homes and a church sit less than a quarter of a mile from the tract. Angie Reynolds, who lives across the street, said a neighbor had already sold and others had talked about it.

We’ve been told it’s not a kill plant and they say that’ll make a difference, but who knows.

Angie Reynolds, neighbor, at the November 13, 2025 groundbreaking

Arnold did not promise silence or a blank smell. He called the building “a big, big kitchen” and said people nearby “are going to smell some chicken.” Nahuz said the layout of the plant and the truck flow were drawn to keep the effect on the community small.

Frank Tallerico, who has lived in the area more than 10 years, said he was glad about the jobs and unhappy about the spot. He can already hear Audia Plastics, the plant just south of the new site, in the early morning, and he called a 200-foot buffer “a slap in the face.” Neighbors have spent years complaining about odor at other Pilgrim’s sites, including a processing plant in Douglas, Ga., which is why the “not a kill plant” line is doing so much work in LaFayette.

Sandri used the groundbreaking to float a Hometown Strong gift, the company’s habit of funding a library, food bank, splash pad, or similar need in towns where it operates. As of the county’s December 2025 newsletter, Walker County’s project had not been named.

The County’s 10-Year Tax Clock

Jobs were the public pitch. The tax file is a 10-year clock. In August 2025, commissioners approved a payment in lieu of tax program for the plant. Under the stepped schedule described to the board, Pilgrim’s would pay 10% of property taxes in year one of operations, 20% in year two, 30% in year three, and so on until it pays 100% in year 10.

School tax sits outside that bargain. County staff said the school portion is excluded from the PILOT and will be paid in full once the plant is running, so the school system does not wait a decade for its millage. The development authority and the county said they would help build the road and extend sewer to the property boundary. On-site utilities and paving stay with the company.

That split is the local trade: delayed county property tax in exchange for a $400 million building and more than 630 payroll slots, with the school levy kept whole. Walker County already advertises PILOT deals, bond financing, and a $1,750 job tax credit as a Tier 3 community. The Pilgrim’s file is that toolkit used at the top of its range.

Hiring Is Still a 2027 Event

Applications are not open in any useful sense. The state’s July 2025 release pointed people to jobs.pilgrims.com, and the county repeated that address at the groundbreaking, but both the company and the county still peg hiring to 2027, when the first phase is supposed to be finished. Construction, by the company’s own February 2026 account, is underway.

What opens in early 2027 is a kitchen sized for a brand that has already booked a billion-dollar year, staffed from a county that does not have 630 people sitting idle, next to houses whose owners were told they will smell chicken and hear another plant. The growers Teems mentioned will keep sending birds into the Georgia chain. The new payroll will show up later, on a 10-year tax ramp, after the steel is up.

Until then the site off Highway 27 is a construction job with a date stamp. The first production hire is still on the other side of New Year’s 2027, and the Hometown Strong gift still does not have a name.