DISPOSAL OF LONG-LIVED ASSETS

12 Months Ended

Dec. 28, 2014

Impairment or Disposal of Tangible Assets Disclosure [Abstract]

DISPOSAL OF LONG-LIVED ASSETS

DISPOSAL OF LONG-LIVED ASSETS

Portsmouth, Virginia Plant

In November 2011, we announced that we would shift the production of hot dogs and lunchmeat from The Smithfield Packing Company, Inc.'s (Smithfield Packing) Portsmouth, Virginia plant to our Kinston, North Carolina plant and permanently close the Portsmouth facility. The Kinston facility was expanded to handle the additional production and incorporates state of the art technology and equipment, which is expected to produce significant production efficiencies and cost reductions. The expansion of the Kinston facility and the closure of the Portsmouth facility were completed in the second half of calendar year 2013.

As a result of this decision, we performed an impairment analysis of the related assets at the Portsmouth facility in the second quarter of the twelve months ended April 29, 2012 and determined that the net cash flows expected to be generated over the anticipated remaining useful life of the plant are sufficient to recover its book value. As such, no impairment existed. However, we revised depreciation estimates to reflect the use of the related assets at the Portsmouth facility over their shortened useful lives. As a result, we recognized accelerated depreciation charges of $4.4 million and $3.3 million in cost of sales during the twelve months ended April 28, 2013 and the twelve months ended April 29, 2012, respectively. Also, in connection with this decision, we wrote-down inventory by $0.8 million in cost of sales and accrued $0.6 million for employee severance in SG&A in the second quarter of the twelve months ended April 29, 2012. All of these charges are reflected in the Packaged Meats segment.