ConAgra to close Beatrice Cheese plant in Wisconsin
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Beatrice Cheese, Inc., a ConAgra Company, announced on August 4, 1997, that it will close its Marshfield, WI, cheese plant on or after October 5 of this year. The plant currently employs 156 people and primarily produces mozzarella cheese.
The Marshfield facility is one of Beatrice's older and smaller plants and has the highest raw materials costs of any of the cheesemaker's 10 other facilities. Nick Jordan, Vice President of Human Resources and General Counsel for Beatrice Cheese, told FPS that the high raw materials costs are due in great part to the price of Wisconsin milk. Says Jordan, "Milk costs per hundred weight are $2 less in California and $1.50 less in Pennsylvania than they are here in Wisconsin." Beatrice Cheese, Inc. is headquartered in Waukesha, WI. Jordan reports that company representatives are meeting with the Wisconsin State Workforce Development agency to help get Marshfield plant employees relocated to other jobs. In addition, the company is offering transfers to three other Beatrice plants in Wisconsin and to the Beatrice plant in Fredricksburg, IA, where the bulk of Marshfield's production will be relocated. The plant consolidation is intended to increase capacity utilization at the other Beatrice facilities without causing a significant impact on overall sales volumes. The closing also reflects the company's strategy of manufacturing products at facilities that can benefit from lower-cost sources of raw materials. Edited by Nick Basta |