All of the current 450 employees will remain in place for the next 15 to 18 months during the transition and production levels will stay the same during that time.
ConAgra officials made their decision Mar. 1 and met with employees and Town officials Wednesday.
The company plans to offer several types of aid to employees and the Town in preparation for the move out of Garner. Executive Vice President of Supply Chain Greg Smith said the company will donate $3 million for a community center in Garner to show thanks for help immediately after the accident in June.
ConAgra also plans to give the building and 106 surrounding acres of land to Garner with a portion of the $3 million going to marketing the property to a new buyer.
For employees, ConAgra will offer severance, outplacement, job retention and performance incentives to help ease the pain of lost jobs. The company also said it would create a scholarship fund for employees and their children in order to pursue continued education.
While some employees will have the opportunity to move to the other 41 ConAgra facilities, an exact number is not known yet.
After three months of exhaustive analysis, Smith said ConAgra reluctantly made the business decision because the Troy plant is much larger and production would be more cost effective. However, Smith said, leaving Garner was not the ideal situation.
“This was a really difficult decision and has ramifications to a number of people,” Smith said. “We also understand that this is a big impact to the Town of Garner, also the greater Triangle area.”
Wake County Economic Development Executive Director Ken Atkins said during a recent meeting with ConAgra officials in Omaha, it was evident that the decision was difficult and their continued commitment to their employees and Garner was clear in the transition package being offered.
The town is sad to see ConAgra leave, but Mayor Ronnie Williams said Garner would not be characterized by the loss, but by the ability to overcome the obstacle.
“We’re going to be defined as a community on how we react to it,” he said.
Neal Padgett, Garner Chamber of Commerce president, said from the ConAgra family has been a major part of the town, from the golf tournament and business expo to the annual meeting.
“They’re definitely going to be missed,” he said. “They were great corporate citizens.”
Williams said he is glad ConAgra gave notice, but he wants to make sure the employees are taken care of in the months to come.
“The burden is on ConAgra and I expect them to live up to their end of the bargain,” he said.
The South end of the building where the explosion took place will be demolished and the building will be tenant-ready when ConAgra employees leave. Garner’s Economic Development Director Tony Beasley said he hopes to see new business move into the space and bring new jobs to the area.
The Town will look into marketing the building for a broad range of new possible tenants, Atkins said, like manufacturing headquarters or a biotechnology company.
If it had not been for the explosion in June, Smith said that the company probably wouldn’t have evaluated the effectiveness of having a stand-alone building for Slim Jim production at this point. While the company continuously analyzes its facilities, officials didn’t take into account how the cost structure is lower at the larger and more modern facility in Ohio.
To rebuild the facility in Garner, Smith said, the amount would have been significant. No amount was given.
Williams said that while the Town did everything it could to keep ConAgra in Garner, he had a gut feeling the company would be closing its doors for good. Still, it didn’t make the news any easier for the Town or the ConAgra employees.
“It’s like a shock wave when the news hits you like it did today,” he said.
In a press release sent out Wednesday, ConAgra said the Ohio plant would be expanding. The facility will add 74,000 square feet and four production lines during the next 12 to 15. The company will increase by 190 employees in Ohio to its current workforce of nearly 400 employees.
Slim Jim production began at the Ohio facility after the explosion last summer.
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