100 Will Lose Jobs in Wesson Plant Closure

Beatrice-Hunt-Wesson will close its Wesson oil refinery and eliminate about 100 jobs, a company spokeswoman said Wednesday.

The subsidiary of the Chicago-based Beatrice Cos. notified its workers on Jan. 25 that the Wesson refinery will be closed soon because of “economic and strategic reasons,” company spokeswoman Kay Carpenter said.

Not affected by the shutdown are the 1,500 employees at Beatrice-Hunt-Wesson’s Fullerton headquarters and about 900 employees--including seasonal employees--at the tomato processing and can-making plants also located in the city.

Of the estimated 100 refinery workers, only about 17 are salaried management employees, while the remainder are represented by two unions, she said.

The company is working with the unions to try to find jobs for some of the displaced employees at its other operations in Fullerton.

It is also helping them locate jobs with other local companies.

“We don’t know yet how long that will take or how many will be placed in other positions” within the company, Carpenter said.

“We don’t know when we will close this refinery,” Carpenter said. “It’s not a problem with the selling of the brand. It’s just that our other refineries have added state-of-the-art equipment, and efficiencies have increased. We just don’t need a third plant.”

She said Beatrice-Hunt-Wesson has shut down several Wesson oil refineries in the East, and the last closing was 10 years ago. The Fullerton plant is the company’s newest refinery and the only one the company has on the West Coast.

Beatrice has three subsidiaries: Beatrice-Hunt-Wesson, the food-processing division in Fullerton; Swift-Eckrich meats and Beatrice Cheese. Hunt-Wesson, the largest of the divisions with annual revenue of more than $2 billion, makes such brands Hunt’s tomato products, Orville Redenbacher popcorn, Peter Pan peanut butter, Rosarita Mexican foods and Swiss Miss chocolate beverages.

The company had put its Fullerton-based subsidiary up for sale in March, 1988, but took it off the market last July when negotiations with a potential buyer failed.