Southeast Colorado suffered another economic blow Wed nesday when Bay Valley Foods, the owner of a La Junta pickle and relish plant with an annual payroll of $3 million, said it would shutter the facility, which employs 153 people.
The news came just a day after Neoplan USA said it would close a bus-manufacturing plant employing about 300 people in Lamar, 56 miles to the east.
“Taking 460 jobs out of our community is absolutely a tragedy,” said Janet Anderson, executive director of Southeast Colorado Enterprise Development Inc.
Together, the two job-cut announcements wiped out hard- won gains.
Anderson said a loan program in the area has helped create between 400 and 500 jobs in the past five years, mostly in small companies.
Average annual wages in Otero County, where La Junta is located, and in Prowers County, where Lamar is located, were less than $26,000 in 2004, well below the state average of $40,285, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“We know families are going to come in looking for ways to supplement their incomes,” said Betty Velasquez, southeast region director for the Colorado Workforce Center. “Unfortunately, we don’t have the jobs at this time.”
The pickle plant, owned by Green Bay, Wis.-based Bay Valley Foods LLC, will close in February. A distribution center at the plant will close in June. Thirty-nine employees have been laid off since March.
“The plan to close the La Junta plant and distribution center has been difficult because of its impact on employees, families and the community,” Rod Bacon, senior vice president of operations for Bay Valley Foods, said in a statement. “Unfortunately, Bay Valley Foods has experienced a reduction in our pickle business and a significant increase in overhead costs, making it necessary to consolidate our manufacturing network.”
Bay Valley Foods, a subsidiary of Westchester, Ill.-based TreeHouse Foods Inc., is one of the major employers in La Junta, behind the Arkansas Valley Regional Medical Center, Wal-Mart and Holden Marketing Support Services.
Most of the production and distribution workers were paid $11 per hour, while maintenance positions paid as much as $15.55 per hour, said Rudolf “Ted” Textor, secretary/treasurer of Teamsters Local No. 537 in Denver, which represents most of the workers.
The positions also had “decent medical benefits,” he said. The union has scheduled a meeting to discuss severance pay for its members.
“The plant has been a mainstay in La Junta for 65 years,” said city manager Rick Klein.
The plant made pickles and relish for private-label and food- service customers, said company spokesman Ron Bottrell. It opened in 1940 and was acquired by Dean Foods in 2002. Dean spun the plant off as part of its specialty-foods division in June.
In Lamar, Neoplan will complete production of its final 10 buses sometime in mid-December, chief executive John Russell said in a news conference Wednesday. Workers will then “mothball” the plant, said Russell, who attributed the closure to financial difficulties.
The Lamar Daily News contributed to this report.
Staff writer Kristi Arellano can be reached at 303-820-1902 or karellano@denverpost.com.
