Kraft Heinz to close Federalsburg manufacturing plant

Kraft Heinz also said it will move its Oscar Mayer unit to Chicago from Madison, Wisconsin, next year. Between the two rounds of job reductions, about 10 percent of the combined workforce will be eliminated.

Cuomo and Schumer say under this agreement, Kraft-Heinz will continue to operate plants in Avon, Walton and Lowville. Apart from this the six plants that are slated to shut down are in Fullerton and San Leandro, California; Federalsburg, Maryland (MD); Ontario, Canada; Campbell, N. Y.; and Madison, Wisconsin.

Warren Buffet’s investment arm Berkshire Hathaway and Brazilian private equity firm 3G Capital had teamed up to buy Heinz in 2013.

Signs that the Madison plant was in trouble began surfacing shortly after the merger when the new company announced in August it would eliminate 165 jobs.

Despite the closure of the Leamington plant, the St. Marys community did not expect its own plant would follow suit.

Kraft Heinz will have 41 plants and 18,000 employees in North America after the closures.

He added: “This will make Kraft Heinz more globally competitive and accelerate the company’s future growth”.

Among the hardest hit cities will be Madison, Wis., where a almost century-old Oscar Mayer plant that employs 700 production workers will close.

The company plans to cut $1.5 billion in annual expenses by the end of 2017.

Kraft Heinz, the third-largest food and beverage maker in North America, is struggling to improve its profitability by lowering costs amidst sluggish sales as more and more consumers now prefer, health, fresh and organic foods to packaged foods.

Strathdee noted that the plant was started by Richardson Foods, and then later acquired by multinational Unifine, and eventually Heinz in 2004.

It is said that a new manufacturing facility near Davenport, Iowa, will be opened where the production from the Madison plant will be moved.

Craig Rost, executive director of the Champaign County Economic Development Corp., said the company didn’t inform local officials about the upcoming job losses before Wednesday’s announcement, and he plans to be in touch with Kraft. House Speaker Paul Ryan, who grew up in Janesville, about 40 miles away, was a salesman for Oscar Mayer and once drove a Wienermobile.