Buena Park Nabisco Workers Wait to See How Cookie Crumbles
For the past 11 years, David Budman has inspected thousands--maybe millions--of Nabisco cookies and crackers as they pass along a conveyor belt in Buena Park.
Lately, though, Budman has wondered whether he will still be punching the time clock at the Nabisco Brands bakery. The operation belongs to RJR Nabisco, which this week accepted a $24.5-billion buyout bid from the investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
Like many of his fellow workers--about 489 check in daily at the plant--Budman is concerned.
The main worry, Budman says, is “are we going to stay open? It’s all up in the air right now. . . . And there’s no way to know which way it’s going.”
The 23-year-old sprawling facility has become a fixture in Buena Park since it began spilling out boxes of baked goods.
Large and well-maintained, the 375,000-square-foot cookie factory is one of nine plants nationwide where Nabisco bakes old favorites like Chips Ahoy!, Ritz Crackers, Wheat Thins and Nilla Wafers. The fresh-baked aroma of the products wafts through the parking lot and clings to workers as they leave for the day.
But these days, employees are wondering how much longer Buena Park will be baking sweets. Buena Park is one of the smallest of Nabisco’s facilities--second only to the other West Coast plant in Portland, Ore., workers say.
“If it’s the littlest shop, you never know” what will happen, Budman said.
Budman, one of half a dozen employees interviewed as they left work Wednesday, said the factory has been buzzing with speculation about what will happen--especially since industry analysts expect Nabisco’s food operations to be put on the block. Procter & Gamble, Nestle, Pepsico, General Mills and Quaker Oats are all believed to be interested in parts of RJR Nabisco.
“There’s lots of talk--and talk is cheap. Rumor No. 758 says they could close the plant and just make it a warehouse and distribution center for the West Coast,” Budman said.
Still, he says he is not worried--and not nearly as concerned as those people who are close to retirement, or those with families and debts. “I’m single and debt-free . . . I honestly believe not much will happen to the workers--It’s middle and upper management who might be eating Alka-Seltzer tablets.”
Others seem more confident that the Buena Park plant will continue business as usual. Through the plant’s two decades of operation, the company has gone through ownership changes and has itself gobbled up companies without much disruption.
In 1981 Nabisco Inc. became Nabisco Brands after a merger with Standard Brands. In 1985, RJ Reynolds Industries acquired Nabisco Brands for $4.9 billion--making this week’s acquisition the second time in 3 years that the Buena Park bakery will have changed hands.
“We’ve bought and have been bought two or three times,” said Ken Elsessor, a Nabisco mixer for 23 years. “It hasn’t made any difference before.”
Several workers reasoned that the food company needs the Orange County bakery because it is one of only two on the West Coast.
Shipping costs, for one thing, would be greater from Nabisco’s other plants in Houston, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Richmond, Va., or Fair Lawn, N.J. “We’ve got non-durable goods here,” said Mike, a factory worker who asked not to be identified. “It’s not like a toaster, where you can put it on a train--crackers won’t survive a trip in a railroad car.”
And the Portland plant is said to be older, more antiquated. “They need the West Coast facility,” Elsessor said. Reynolds or another buyer “could probably get a windfall by selling (Buena Park’s) building and land--but there’d be tremendous capital gains. And what would they do for a bakery when they’re done?”
“I don’t see how they could afford to lose the bakery,” he said, then added, “Now that it’s been bought, we’ll see what happens next.”
RJR NABISCO’S ORANGE COUNTY OPERATIONNabisco Brands Inc.,
Biscuit Division
7301 Artesia Blvd., Buena Park
General Manager: John Bryant
Employees: 489
Business: A bakery. Products include Premium Saltines, Chips Ahoy cookies, Ritz Crackers, Honey Graham Crackers, Wheat Thins, Nilla Wafers cookies.
