Cacique Foods To Cease Dairy Operations In California, Moves To Texas

Cacique Foods, the maker of a leading brand of authentic Mexican-style cheeses, cremas, chorizos and salsas in the United States, this week announced that it has ceased operations at its dairy factory in City of Industry, California, and is relocating its dairy production to its new state-of-the-art facility in Amarillo, Texas.

Cacique Foods opened the new dairy processing facility in Amarillo earlier this year as it also marked the company’s 50th anniversary. Due to the interest in Hispanic foods exploding nationwide, the company saw an opportunity to create a new facility that will provide Cacique with greater production capacity and distribution points to meet growing demand for its products, company officials say. The facility in Amarillo also brought more than 200 new jobs to the area.

Strategic Decision: From California To Texas

In a statement provided to Cheese Market News, Cacique Foods says it came to the decision to relocate from California to Texas after extensive analysis showed that consolidating business operations in Texas will help meet the growing demand for Cacique’s high-quality products nationwide.

“Cacique will always have roots in California, and the community to thank, who has been integral to Cacique’s history, growth and success for more than 50 years,” the company says. “While operations are moving, the West Coast remains an important region, and Cacique plans to stay connected and remain part of the community.”

The company notes it is offering employees as much support as possible, including financial packages, incentives to relocate, or providing out-placement services for those looking for new employment in California.

“Cacique is inviting all current employees to apply in hopes that members of the Cacique family make the decision to move. The intention is to map all current California-based jobs to the same positions in Texas,” the company says. “However, given that Cacique has different production lines and positions open in Amarillo, there may be some adjustments made to current positions as they move to Amarillo. The Cacique human resources team is working with each employee individually to discuss the specifics of their situation privately.”

California Plant Closures And Future Plans

Cacique officials add that the plant in City of Industry, California, is now closed, and the Irwindale Distribution Center is closing at the end of September.

Cacique Foods has hired Harry Davis & Company, a leading dairy industry market maker, to conduct an auction of the southern California equipment assets.

Harry Davis & Company is a leader in the food and beverage equipment market and will offer the assets of this massive facility at auction in early December. On offer will include more than 2,000 auction lots including product silos, pasteurization, homogenizers, milk and whey separators, process tanks, cheese and dairy packaging and an enormous selection of parts, utilities and general food facility equipment.

Harry Davis & Company: Auctioning Cacique Foods’ Assets

“The availability of Cacique’s late-model equipment is an outstanding opportunity for industry manufacturers to acquire production assets at a fraction of the cost and without the prohibitive lead time that manufacturers have grown accustomed to,” says Lenny Davis, CEO of Harry Davis & Company.

“A plant of this size with the capabilities to produce such a wide range of products, especially in this geographical area — there is a lot of equipment that has been hard to source in a timely fashion with increasing global lead times and logistics constraints,” Davis says. “This is a complete site closure, so everything from the specialized dairy equipment down to generic food factory items including utilities are being offered.”

Aaron Morgenstern, president of Harry Davis & Company, reiterates that the sale is a very unique opportunity for the purchase of late-model equipment that typically is not available with such a short lead time.

“I go to a lot of these sites, and this is definitely one of the nicest ones. The condition of the equipment is some of the best you’ll see available on the secondary market,” Morgenstern says.

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Source: Cheese Market News