A 98-year-old Fresno dough plant is closing. When will workers lose their jobs?
CORRECTION: Rich Products Corporation has operated a frozen-dough plant on O Street near downtown Fresno since 1974. The plant itself is 98 years old. An online story about the plant closure later this year incorrectly reported that the company had operated the plant for almost 100 years.
A plant that’s operated in Fresno for nearly 100 years will be closing next spring as a result of business decisions by the corporate headquarters on the East Coast.
Rich Products Corporation, based in Buffalo, New York, confirmed Monday that it will shutter its frozen-dough plant on O Street, south of downtown Fresno, by March 2022. The closure will affect 111 employees, according to a notice filed with the state Employment Development Department. Rich Products has operated the plant since 1974.
“Based on business and capital assessments, Rich Products has made the difficult decision to close our Fresno, CA manufacturing site,” said Dwight Gram, the company’s vice president of corporate communications. Production in Fresno will be moved to Rich plants in Lodi, north of Stockton, and Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
Gram said the age and capacity of the 98-year-old O Street plant “have limited our ability to meet market demands for more fully finished products.”
“Moving production to Lodi and Murfreesboro offers us greater capabilities for further expansion in the future,” Gram added.
The company filed its required notice under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act with the state on July 29 with an effective date of Nov. 30. The act requires employers to give their workers at least a 60-day notice of plant closings or mass layoffs.
The closure of the plant will take place over two phases: one in November and another when production ceases in February 2022. The company expects fully shut down its operations by the end of March 2022.
Gram said the company will provide severance packages and career transition services for the affected employees. “We will also be reaching out to other Fresno-based manufacturers to identify potential placement opportunities for our people,” he added.
This story was originally published August 9, 2021 at 4:11 PM.
