The plant, which is scheduled to become operational in mid-2011, will provide chicken products to McDonald’s restaurants and is expected to employ approximately 350 employees, five days per week, 24 hours a day.

Dorada Poultry is a joint venture between the principals of Lopez Foods, Inc. (LFI) of Oklahoma City, the nation's largest Hispanic-owned meat manufacturing company, and Tyson Foods, Inc. of Springdale, Arkansas, one of the world's largest processors and marketers of chicken, beef and pork products.

"We are proud to become members of the Ponca City business community and look forward to becoming a model of corporate citizenship," said Dorada Poultry Chairman and CEO Ed Sanchez. "With an anticipated economic impact of $7 million per year in payroll, we will make a major economic contribution to the region where our employees will live, work and play. We want our workforce to be proud to call Dorada Poultry their employer."

Donnie Smith, president and chief executive officer of Tyson, commented: "This innovative venture will enable us to expand Tyson's involvement in providing a reliable supply of safe, consistent quality chicken that meets McDonald’s high standards. We look forward to supporting Dorada Poultry’s production of great food for a very important customer."

An economic impact model developed by the Ponca City Development Authority, (PCDA) forecasts the Dorada Poultry plant will contribute $217 million to the Ponca City community over the next ten years.

"Projects of this magnitude provide not only significant employment opportunities, they also reach deep within a community," said PCDA Executive Director David Myers, referring to the 350 jobs projected for the project. "This is an extremely important project for Ponca City and we could not have asked for a better result," he added.

The Dorada Poultry principals also operate Lopez Foods, which specialises in high quality, further processed protein products such as fully cooked beef patties, breakfast sausage, and chicken, individually quick frozen (IQF) beef patties and a variety of other pork, beef and chicken products. LFI products are available to consumers through a number of renowned customers, including Burger King, Costco, Kroger's, McDonald's, Sam's Club, Sonic, Target and Walmart Stores. It operates an 185,000-square foot processing facility in Oklahoma City with a workforce of 500 and is also the parent company of Campos Foods Inc., with an 85,000-square foot facility in Caryville, Tennessee, that employs 200 associates.