The closing of the Vlasic pickle plant in Millsboro in August will mean lay-offs for nearly 400 workers and will curtail pickling cucumber production for local farmers.
Pinnacle Foods, parent company for Vlasic, announced just before Memorial Day weekend the Millsboro plant will lay off about 200 full-time workers and nearly 200 part-time workers.
Millsboro Town Manager Faye Lingo said it is difficult to see Vlasic leave.
“It’s a nice, clean facility and they have been good neighbors,” Lingo said. “It’s always hard to see a company go because it might mean the people have to move for other jobs. Millsboro is fortunate to have several types of business here, but I am not sure of any other industry jobs where these workers might go.”
Delaware Economic Development Office Director Alan Levin said state leaders including Gov. Jack Markell visited Millsboro May 30 to discuss the future of plant workers.
The facility is set to close in August. Levin said his hope is workers will remain until the facility closes, which can be hard when people know the end is near.
There will be severance for those who stay to the end, Levin said.
The Department of Labor and other agencies will advise workers of their rights and inform them of ways the state can help them with employment counseling or healthcare needs, Levin said.
“We will bring our rapid response team down from the Department of Labor in the next two weeks to work directly with people in Millsboro,” Levin said. “We go into a mode of trying to protect the workers, and each agency has ways to help them.”
DEDO is trying to find a new business to move into the facility, he said.
“The advantage here is that this plant is already FDA-approved. Delaware doesn’t have many FDA-approved sites, so this could really help us market the location. The skilled workforce already based here is also a great marketing tool,” Levin said.
Farmers could cease production
Keith Carlisle, a farmer in Greenwood, has been selling pickling cucumbers to Vlasic since the 1980s.
“It’s bad news for those farmers growing cucumbers, but it is not the end of the world because there are other crops,” Carlisle said. “Instead I might grow more small grain or corn now that there isn’t a market for cucumbers.”
Last year Carlisle grew about 400 acres of pickling cucumbers. “At one time we were growing 600 acres, so the need was going down,” he said.
Carlisle was among about eight Delaware farmers growing pickling cucumbers on more than 6,000 acres of land. By comparison, Delaware farmers grow 220,000 acres of soybeans and about 120,000 acres of corn.
When the Vlasic plant relocated to Millsboro in 1972, Carlisle and other area farmers started supplying the plant with cucumbers through Kenny Brothers Produce in Bridgeville.
Kenny Brothers relocated to Millsboro from Michigan, where Vlasic has a larger processing plant to get cucumbers ready for processing.
While Kenny Brothers will remain in business, sorting and providing cucumbers to other pickle companies, including Vlasic in Michigan, some farmers say they will stop growing cucumbers.
“We have been growing cucumbers for 20 years,” said Carlisle. “We won’t grow them now because there isn’t a market. Maybe people aren’t eating as many pickles these days.”
Steve McCarron of Kenny Brothers said Vlasic was the company’s largest customer, but Kenny Brothers plans to expand and look for new markets.
“We will continue to supply other customers, including other major pickle brands,” said McCarron. “We moved here in 2002 to supply the Vlasic plant in Millsboro, so they were a big part of our business.”
McCarron said he is disappointed Pinnacle Foods, owner of Vlasic, decided to close the Millsboro plant. During negotiations last year and earlier this year, Pinnacle looked at many options, but knew either the Imlay City, Mich. facility or the Millsboro location would close.
McCarron said in the end, Pinnacle’s plant in Michigan was larger so it will remain in operation.
“It’s a big hit to the Millsboro area,” McCarron said. “Vlasic had good reasons, including the fact that many pickles are coming from other countries. I always tell people that every sandwich needs a pickle.”
Delaware Agriculture Secretary Ed Kee said state leaders worked with Pinnacle to try to keep the Millsboro plant open, but in the end, he said, it wasn’t enough.
“On Delmarva there were about 15 farmers growing pickles for Vlasic,” Kee said. “In Delaware farmers were growing about 38 million pounds of cucumbers each year for processing. That’s less than half of the total amount processed in Millsboro for Vlasic.”
In Millsboro, workers packed more than 80 million jars of Vlasic pickles annually, so cucumbers came from all over the East Coast, Kee said.
“With Kenny Brothers continuing to operate there is a chance that pickles could be shipped to Michigan from Delaware,” Kee said. “The acreage of cucumbers will likely be reduced, but this will not mean a complete wipeout of pickles being grown on Delmarva.”
Pinnacle Foods spokeswoman Elizabeth Roland said Pinnacle plans to sell the Millsboro property, but it is not known at this time if the company will also sell the processing equipment. Workers will be notified 60 days before the plant closes so they can make arrangements, Roland said. They will receive severance and can apply for unemployment, she said.
While the exact date for the closure of the plant has not been set, Kee said state leaders hope to attract new business to the Millsboro area.
“I have worked with Vlasic since the 1970s and am sorry to see them go,” Kee said. “They have been a part of the agriculture community here, especially for vegetable growers.”
Click here to see more...