Brentwood, Missouri-based Post Holdings, the packaged foods company with several iconic brands, has announced that the closing of their 235,000 square-foot cereal manufacturing facility located in Clinton, Massachusetts and the layoff of 181 employees. The facility, acquired in 2017 produces the Weetabix line of whole grain wheat breakfast cereals.
The company’s operations will be transferred to other Post facilities. Dave McBeain, senior vice president of Post supply chain and operations noted, “By leveraging our broad network capabilities, we can keep our costs as low as possible for continue growth in both traditional and natural/organic cereal.”
This should not come as a surprise to employees as the company announced the plant’s closure and anticipated sale of the property on February 27, 2018.
A company spokesperson explained, “The planned closure of the facility reflects Post’s continuous improvement initiative to optimize its cereal production network and manage costs in the ready-to-eat cereal category.
The facility, which was acquired with the $1.8 billion acquisition of Weetabix on July 3, 2017, employs approximately 180 employees and is expected to close by August 2019. Post will engage in discussions with the union representing the hourly employees at the Clinton facility to determine the impact to terms and conditions of employment for the unionized workers. Affected employees have been notified.”
The cold cereal industry is undergoing a change in consumer purchasing preferences and patterns and the industry sales of cereal products has been dropping over ten percent in the past five years. Few consumers have failed to note the dramatic increase in cereal pricing by Post, Kellogg, and General Mills.
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