Del Monte facility in Siloam Springs to close immediately
Del Monte Foods, Inc. says the sale of Sager Creek Vegetable to McCall Farms will close one production facility in Siloam Springs immediately.
The company says it will continue to "be the point of service for all retail and food service customers of Sager Creek through early 2018" and will work closely with McCall Farms during the transition.
238 people worked at the production facility, a spokesperson for Del Monte told 40/29. Plant workers processed and packaged green beans, sweet potatoes, carrots, dry beans, squash and white potatoes.
Warehouse operations at the Kenwood, Jefferson and Springdale, Arkansas locations are unaffected by the sale. People who lost their jobs in Siloam Springs can apply for open positions at those locations.
The regional office in Siloam Springs and the sales office in Rogers are also unaffected, the company said.
"The loss of 300 manufacturing jobs will have a big impact on the incomes of the people losing the jobs, but may not be seen in many measurable ways in a region the size of Northwest Arkansas," Mervin Jebaraj, assistant director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas told 40/29.
"Depending on the ability of the workers to find other jobs in a tight labor market in Northwest Arkansas, the impact may not persist for very long," Jebaraj said. "For Siloam Springs, a city of more than 16,000 people, this affects some of the diversity of business operations in the city, but it likely won’t have a significant impact on the whole city or region."
Siloam Springs Chamber of Commerce President Wayne Mays echoed Jebaraj with confidence in the resilience of their local workforce.
“We’re optimistic that these people, you know if you’re one of them, it’s significant. It’s an impact on their life. But if you’re a community looking at it, we believe that that they’re going to have some good opportunities to get a job and stay right here.”