WEST POINT - Bryan Foods workers thought they had a little breathing room last year after getting a one-year contract with parent company Sara Lee Corp - even as the company announced the layoffs of some 400 fellow employees.

They were wrong.

Monday, Sara Lee announced it planned to close the plant, putting the remaining 1,000 or so out of work by the end of March.

"It's pretty much a done deal," said Eddie James, president of the United Food & Commercial Workers Union Local 1991. "We thought that they would sell the plant before they'd close it, but it doesn't look that way."

Local officials say there are interested buyers for the plant, but Sara Lee only has said "all options are open."

"We're kind of in a state of shock," James said. "I think everybody was looking for something to happen later because we just did a one-year extension on our contract. We thought we'd have that year to prepare for a buyer ... but we didn't get that chance."

Sara Lee said the West Point plant wasn't in line with its future growth plans. In its news release Monday, the company said running the bacon and fresh pork processing and FlavoTech spice production "was not efficient."

James said he would not comment about the perceived suggestion that the plant was anything but efficient.

Tim Climer, president of the West Point/Clay County Community Growth Alliance, said he had not heard anything disparaging about the plant or its workers.

"People in the plant I've talked to say it's as productive as any plant, even though the company hasn't made any major investment in it for several years," he said. "And all that I hear is that Sara Lee still thinks the plant is efficient, but that the announcement is more related to their restructuring than anything else."

Indeed, two years ago Sara Lee announced a major restructuring plan to focus on high-profit businesses. That meant selling or spinning off other units, and the company sold off its Hanes apparel division, European clothing and meat operations and U.S. retail coffee business.

Tuesday, Sara Lee spokeswoman Sara Matheu said "work force productivity was not a factor" in the announced closing.

She also said the unionized work force had no impact on the company's decision.

"We continue to have a positive relationship with the Union in West Point and have been grateful for their assistance during this difficult time," she said in a statement. "Costs associated with our union work force was not a factor in the plant closing."

Ripple effect

Meanwhile, the aftermath of Monday's announcement is still being weighed. While the closure of the plant would mean more than 1,000 people directly laid off, another 1,000 to 1,500 also could be affected.

Area convenience stores that sell food and fuel to plant workers, as would local restaurants and retailers, likely would be among the first to feel the impact of such a massive layoff .

"We're probably talking about another possibly 1,500 people indirectly affected," Climer said. "This is more than a West Point thing, it affects the entire Golden Triangle and beyond."

Climer estimates about half the plant's workers are from Clay County, where West Point is county seat.

"Of course it would hit us hard, but the surrounding counties would feel it, too," he said. "I think Noxubee County has about 100 people who work at the plant."

Plant suppliers might feel the pain of a closure, too, but so far, Prestage Farms of West Point says "it's business as usual."

Prestage, the state's largest swine producer, supplies 100 percent of Bryan's prime-market animals. But even though one if its largest customers might be out of business, officials say the company will survive.

"It's business as usual," said Richard C. Stubbs, Prestage's director of human resources and public relations, who said the company also supplies other businesses across country. "But we hope that state and local people can work things out ... Bryan has always been a part of our lives, and we hope help can come to them."

Prestage has about 200 workers at its West Point plant and some 40 contract hog farmers who provide about 40 percent of its hogs - about 450,000.