OTHER NEWS - Dec. 7, 1991
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
Kraft to Shut Turkey Plant: The nearly new Louis Rich turkey processing plant at Tulare, Calif., will close May 22, idling 1,400 employees, Kraft General Foods announced. Ironically, modern technology installed at the 2 1/2-year-old plant made it vulnerable to closure because Kraft can adapt it to some other use more easily than at older facilities, Vice President Al Backer said. The weak economy is the main reason one of the four Louis Rich plants is being closed, the company said. The other plants are in Iowa and North Carolina. Another reason for the closure is that growth in the turkey industry fell to about 3% annually from 12% to 14% a year when the Tulare plant was built.
