Barber Foods to lay off 79 in Portland

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A food-processing company known for its frozen stuffed chicken products says it's laying off another 79 workers at its Portland, Maine, processing plant.

Barber Foods was acquired by AdvancePierre Foods, of Cincinnati, last year.

After that the company laid-off 71 workers at the Portland plant in December and 82 last June.

The Portland Press Herald (http://bit.ly/I12K4L) reported Monday that Barber has said the acquisition allowed it to move production of its line of fully cooked foods to a more efficient plant owned by AdvancePierre in Oklahoma.

The Portland plant will focus on raw foods like stuffed chicken breasts.

After the latest layoffs, there will be 300 workers remaining in Portland.

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Information from: Portland Press Herald, http://www.pressherald.com