Hunt-Wesson Negotiating to Buy Knott’s Food Unit

Knott’s Berry Farm is negotiating to sell its food unit, which includes its well-known line of jams and jellies, to Hunt-Wesson Foods in Fullerton, sources said Friday.

Neither Knott’s nor Hunt-Wesson would comment on the talks, however.

As a family-owned enterprise, Knott’s has never disclosed the value of its packaged food operation, but with 200 to 400 workers, varying for seasonal activity, the Placentia unit is the fastest-growing part of the company.

Knott’s food divisions began half a century ago as an outgrowth of the family’s restaurant business. It now makes a range of products from salad dressings to diet pancake syrup as well as the jellies and jams that made Knott’s food operation famous.

During the recession, Knott’s theme park operations flagged and the company tried unsuccessfully to expand its restaurants outside of Buena Park. But the foods division has enjoyed a 45% sales increase since 1988, or an average increase of 6.4% a year.

Much of the increase has come through the frequent introduction of new products, such as a line of fruit spreads that were the first to use the NutraSweet artificial sweetener and a line of gourmet ice cream rolled out last year.

The division’s first production facility was opened at Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park in 1946 and it moved to new quarters in Placentia in 1985.

Hunt-Wesson, a division of ConAgra Inc., has a tomato packing plant in Fullerton that produces spaghetti sauces, ketchup and other related goods. The plant also has a fluctuating work force, depending on the season. Its year-round staff was cut roughly in half in 1993 to about 200 in a round of layoffs brought about by productivity improvements.