ConAgra Foods plans to close its Slim Jim plant in Garner in 15 to 18 months, throwing hundreds of employees out of work and dealing another blow to the region's economy.

The plant was damaged last summer in an explosion that killed four workers and injured dozens more. Since then, ConAgra has been considering whether to pump more money into the plant or move production of the meat snacks.

But the company told workers today that it will shift production to Troy, Ohio in late 2011.

The company plans to take several steps "to help ease the economic loss in the Garner community," it wrote in a prepared statement.

That includes donating the factory and 106 acres on which it sits to spur regional economic development and donating $3 million for a community center in Garner. ConAgra also will help market the facility to prospective manufacturers. And ConAgra will establish a scholarship fund for Garner employees and their children.

ConAgra Foods' Slim Jim plant in Garner stopped production today so that employees can hear from company officials about the factory's future.

Hundreds of workers are scheduled to attend a meeting at the Clayton Center this afternoon. Local and state officials have been in negotiations with the company about a financial incentives package aimed at convincing ConAgra to keep the plant open.

ConAgra executives, including executive vice president Greg Smith, and town officials have scheduled a press briefing at Garner Town Hall at 4 p.m.

The plant was damaged last summer in an explosion that killed four workers and injured dozens more. ConAgra has been considering whether to pump more money into the plant or move production of the meat snacks elsewhere.

Garner Mayor Ronnie Williams has said previously that he's worried the company will close the plant.

At the time of the explosion, the Garner plant was the world's only production site for Slim Jims. The factory has been making Slim Jims for more than 40 years and is one of the town's largest private employers.

ConAgra laid off about 300 workers last fall, and the plant now employs about 400 people.

Even as ConAgra Foods weighs the future of its Slim Jim manufacturing plant in Garner, the company is reviving marketing of the meat snacks with a muscled, violent pitchman.

ConAgra announced today a promotional deal with World Wrestling Entertainment, and its first advertising campaign since an explosion at the Garner plant last summer killed four workers and halted Slim Jim production. A WWE star known as the Edge will serve as the "Spicy Side" campaign's spokesman.

The one-year partnership was originally planned for last summer, but the plant explosion put it on hold, the New York Post reports. Slim Jim also will be the "official meat snack of WWE."

Rumor has it that top corporate brass at ConAgra Foods will decide on the future of the company's Slim Jim plant in Garner during a meeting on Thursday in Omaha, Neb.

Don't hold your breath.

A decision to close or keep the plant, which was damaged in an explosion last June that killed four people, could come soon, but Tony Beasley, Garner's economic development director, doesn't expect news this week.

"They're having a routine board meeting on the 18th and we've been getting calls from employees that a decision is coming," Beasley said.

Garner officials are working with their counterparts at the state level to come up with an incentives package aimed at keeping the plant open. ConAgra laid off about half of the plant's 750 workers last fall and is said to be considering whether to pump more money into it or move production elsewhere.

Less than a week after ConAgra Foods told about 300 of workers at its Garner Slim Jim they will be let go, the company reported this morning that quarterly profit jumped 34 percent.

The Omaha, Neb., company is selling more Healthy Choice and Marie Callender's dinners and other prepared foods as consumers cook meals at home during the recession. Lower commodity costs also boosted profit.

Operating profit rose to $250 million during the quarter ended Aug. 30, up 34 percent from the same period last year. The company also raised its profit projection for the full year.

But total revenue during the latest quarter fell 3 percent to $2.96 billion, hurt by weaker Slim Jim sales and a decline in its commercial foods division.

Slim Jim production was disrupted by the June explosion at the Garner plant, which killed three workers.