Layoffs at Pilgrim’s Pride, announced last December, are set to begin next week, company spokesman Ray Atkinson said by email today. Some 500 workers at the Suwannee County poultry processing plant were set to lose their jobs, though the final number may be fewer.

“The actual number of layoffs could be less than that due to attrition, but I can’t give … a definitive number at this point,” said Atkinson.

Pilgrim’s Pride announced that layoffs were imminent at the plant soon after the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Dec. 1.

Pilgrim’s Pride employees nearly 1,400 workers at the local plant and is at this point Suwannee County’s largest employer.