He further stated that these moves will make Kraft Heinz much more competitive and will speed up its future growth.
Advertisement
Roughly 1,400 workers are employed at the current facility, according to a January company estimate.
Debi Durham, executive director of the Iowa Economic Development Authority, said it was her understanding that Kraft Heinz also had been considering Missouri for its new plant and the incentives were needed to keep Kraft Heinz operations in Iowa.
Town officials said they hope other area businesses, including two factories, will help people find jobs. Additionally, a Champaign, Ill. plant will be reconfigured to make new products.
“In this case, when you look at seven announcements across the country, it has nothing to do with Wisconsin”, Walker said.
The move to reduce its workforce by almost 6 per cent comes three months after the third-largest food company in the USA and the fifth-largest worldwide, announced in August that it would cut 2,500 jobs.
The Leamington plant was sold to Highbury Canco, a co-packing company and one of Kraft Heinz’s suppliers.
Kraft Heinz announced Wednesday about 250 corporate jobs will be relocated from Madison, Wis., to Chicago, where Oscar Mayer was founded in 1883.
Village of Walton Mayor Ed Snow says the community would be crushed if the Kraft-Heinz were to pack up and move.
Heinz was backed by Brazilian private equity firm 3G Capital, which has a reputation for finding ways to trim the fat at companies, including Heinz itself and Anheuser-Busch InBev. We have reached this hard but necessary decision after thoroughly exploring extensive alternatives and options.
“In a staged process over the next 12-24 months, production in these locations will shift to other existing factories in North America”, Kraft spokesman Michael Mullen told Reuters.
He said affected workers would be offered severance benefits, and that the changes were “a critical step in our plan to eliminate excess capacity and reduce operational redundancies for the new combined company”.
Advertisement
WEDC said Deputy Secretary Tricia Braun contacted Kraft Heinz on Wednesday to see if anything could be done to reverse or delay the decision to close Wisconsin’s Oscar Mayer plant.
