Dive Brief:
- Bay Valley, a wholly owned subsidiary of TreeHouse Foods, is shutting down its private-label and regionally branded spoonable dressings plant in Ayer, MA, next year. The plant currently employs about 100 workers.
- US Foods has announced the June closure of its distribution center in Severn, MD, after a long battle with unions and declining sales. As of last June, the center employed about 350 workers.
- Sensient Flavors LLC, a subsidiary of Sensient Technologies Corp., has announced plans to close its Indianapolis, IN, facility, which is expected to lead to the loss of 86 jobs by the end of the year.
Dive Insight:
Local unions said US Foods' demands for labor agreements were too steep to meet, The Baltimore Sun reported. The company sought $8 million in concessions and wanted to move from pensions to a 401K plan for workers.
Though the center continues to be profitable, the company has redistributed business to other non-union facilities, which has led to a drop in sales volume.
US Foods announced the plant's future closure last year around the same time its deal with Sysco fell through. The company recently filed for an IPO. Closing this distribution center and cutting costs is one way for US Foods to become leaner and more profitable for shareholders.
TreeHouse is looking for ways to cut costs not long after acquiring ConAgra's private-label brands business last year for $2.7 billion. With that purchase, TreeHouse became the largest private-label food and beverage brands producer in the country. As more retailers, ranging from Albertsons to Amazon, expand their private-label businesses, these products are posing a more significant challenge to revenue and shelf space.
Sensient's move comes three years after the company announced a major restructuring plan. Sensient Flavors moved its division headquarters, and streamlining took hold company-wide, which led to layoffs at another facility in 2013.
Cost-cutting continues to be an industry-wide movement, with facility closures being a key aspect of that process.