HANFORD, Calif. (KMJ/KFSN) — Del Monte Foods is selling its 670,000-square-foot facility at Jackson and South 11th Avenue near Hanford.
The tomato processing plant employs more than 400 people, most from Kings and Tulare County, but their future remains uncertain.
“I don’t see this as a bad thing. It’s just a transition, a little bit of uncertainty during the holiday spirit. During the holiday spirit time, you don’t want to be told you may lose your job. But like I said officially, we haven’t been told that anyone’s being laid off. We are here to help if that does happen,” says Kings County Board of Supervisor Doug Verboon, who remains positive.
Verboon says a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) has yet to go out.
“Before people can be laid off in our county, they get a WARN notice, which is 60 days ahead of a layoff and lets us know that we’re going to have a bunch of people coming to the unemployment office to file applications. We have not received that yet, so that’s a positive,” explains Verboon.
Julieta Martinez with the Kings County Economic Development Corporation says they are ready to help.
“We just want to tell people if they fear there could be a change in their employment, we are here every step to guide them. We provide career coaching, and we can help in your resume so it doesn’t have to be doom and gloom,” mentions Julieta.
Although many details are unknown, Del Monte says in a statement, “This was an extremely difficult decision, but one the Company needed to make to align the business with consumer demand. No other facility in the Del Monte Foods network is impacted by this transaction.”
Kings County Board of Supervisor Doug Verboon also mentioned, “If Del Monte was able to put it up for sale and sell it, that means it’s a valuable commodity, and so whoever owns it probably would like to see it be profitable.”
