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Del Monte Foods Sells Sager Creek, Siloam Springs Plant Closes

2 min read

Del Monte Foods Inc. of San Francisco announced Wednesday that it has sold its Sager Creek vegetable business to McCall Farms Inc. of Effingham, South Carolina, and that the sale will result in the closure of a production facility in Siloam Springs. 

A spokesman said the immediate closure would affect all the facility’s 238 employees. 

Warehouse operations in Kenwood, Jefferson and Springdale won’t be affected by the sale; the company said those sites will continue to support ongoing logistics needs of Del Monte Foods and its retail and foodservice customers.

The companies did not disclosing the sale price. 

Sager Creek, a producer of specialty vegetables for the foodservice and retail markets, makes brands that include Veg-all, Freshlike, Popeye, Princella, Trappey’s and Allens.

The brands were owned by Allens Inc. of Siloam Springs, a private, family-owned company that filed for bankruptcy in 2013. It sold its assets to investment group Sager Creek Acquisition Corp. in 2014 for $160 million. In 2015, Sager Creek sold its interest in Allens to Del Monte Foods for $75 million.

Del Monte Foods said it will continue to be the point of service for all retail and foodservice customers of Sager Creek through early 2018. The company also said it would work closely with McCall Farms to support a “seamless transition.”

“The Sager Creek brands do not align with the long-term business strategies and growth opportunities for Del Monte Foods,” Del Monte COO Dave Meyers said in a news release. “This divesture allows us to focus our energy and resources to strengthen our core business, driving innovation and exploring new products and experiences that meet the evolving needs of today’s consumer.”

It’s the not the first time Del Monte has closed a Sager Creek facility. In 2015, days after purchasing Sager Creek, the company shuttered Sager Creek’s vegetable processing plant in Pulaski, Wisconsin, moving production to other Sager Creek and Del Monte-owned vegetable production facilities.

Del Monte Foods is one of the country’s largest producers, distributors and marketers of branded food products. Its brands include Del Monte, Contadina, College Inn and S&W. It has about 7,800 employees, and the company says its domestic fruit, vegetable, tomato and broth packaged foods represent about $1.7 billion in annual sales.

Founded in 1838, privately held McCall Farms employs about 1,000 people at a 1.1 million-SF manufacturing facility. Its brands include Glory Foods, Margaret Holmes, Peanut Patch, Bruce’s Yams and Glory Farms.

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