Ready Pac to idle plant
Ready Pac to idle plant
As a result of softening marketing conditions, Irwindale, CA-based Ready Pac Produce Inc. will idle its salad-processing plant in Plymouth, IN, next month. Steve Dickstein, vice president of marketing for Ready Pac, said that the plant would be idled Nov. 9. Production at the facility will return when market conditions warrant it, he said.
Mr. Dickstein said that the decision was in the works two or three months ago. At the time, it was thought that perhaps 50 of the 200 it employs at the Indiana plant would be let go and the company notified its employees of the situation. But further downturn in demand for bagged salads following the E. coli 0157:H7 outbreak in spinach "was one of the contributing factors" that led to the decision last week to idle the plant, Mr. Dickstein said. Ready Pac was not implicated in the E. coli outbreak, but it felt the impact of lower demand as has the entire bagged salad industry.
"Our workers [in Indiana] are a terrific team," Mr. Dickstein said, adding that the company has offered to transfer certain employees among the 200 to its other plant locations based on their skills. Employees are being given severance pay and are being offered various forms of outplacement assistance by Ready Pac, he said.
In addition to Indiana, Ready Pac has salad-processing plants in Irwindale, CA; Jackson, GA; Fort Worth, TX; and two in New Jersey -- one in Florence and another in Swedesboro.
There are no plans to idle the company's remaining processing plants, which will be able to accommodate the needs of customers in the Indiana plant's absence, Mr. Dickstein said.
Mr. Dickstein said that the decision was in the works two or three months ago. At the time, it was thought that perhaps 50 of the 200 it employs at the Indiana plant would be let go and the company notified its employees of the situation. But further downturn in demand for bagged salads following the E. coli 0157:H7 outbreak in spinach "was one of the contributing factors" that led to the decision last week to idle the plant, Mr. Dickstein said. Ready Pac was not implicated in the E. coli outbreak, but it felt the impact of lower demand as has the entire bagged salad industry.
"Our workers [in Indiana] are a terrific team," Mr. Dickstein said, adding that the company has offered to transfer certain employees among the 200 to its other plant locations based on their skills. Employees are being given severance pay and are being offered various forms of outplacement assistance by Ready Pac, he said.
In addition to Indiana, Ready Pac has salad-processing plants in Irwindale, CA; Jackson, GA; Fort Worth, TX; and two in New Jersey -- one in Florence and another in Swedesboro.
There are no plans to idle the company's remaining processing plants, which will be able to accommodate the needs of customers in the Indiana plant's absence, Mr. Dickstein said.
