Ruiz Foods closes Tulare plant, shifts production to other factories 

USA- Frozen food and snack maker Ruiz Foods has announced plans to shut down its manufacturing plant in Tulare, California, in the summer, citing it is no longer viable. 

The snack maker revealed the Tulare plant has outlived its usefulness. It was opened in 2004 to supplement production for Ruiz Foods’ Dinuba manufacturing facility specializing in frozen foods.  

The company revealed the plant is too small to meet its current manufacturing needs and remain viable. Ruiz Foods will shift production to its remaining five factories in Texas, California, and South Carolina.  

“The Tulare manufacturing facility has a limited footprint, parking, and layout, which creates manufacturing challenges as well as increased transportation and storage costs to reach our customers located outside of the West Coast,” the company said in the statement.  

The move is expected to affect 215 jobs. However, the snack maker revealed it plans to offer some affected employees the option to transfer to its flagship Dinuba manufacturing facility. Although the company expressed disappointment over the jobs that will be lost, it reiterates the move is the best decision for the business and aligns with its current strategy.  

The closure is part of the company’s optimization strategy that took root after Kimberli Carrol was appointed CEO in January. 

Carrol has incorporated technological advancements as part of this optimization strategy. In March, Ruiz Foods set up an integrated Infor platform that helped the snacks maker modernize its operations. The platforms utilizes virtual planning tools, scanners and data analytics.  

Carrol said, “It had become very clear over the past several years that Infor was investing significantly in its cloud offering and that most of its latest innovations were coming out for cloud. In order for us to stay strategically aligned with Infor, we needed to move to the cloud to access the solution’s absolute latest capabilities.” 

“The move is a win-win because we are saving a considerable amount of capital, which we’ve been able to redirect to other initiatives, while staying aligned with our technology partners.” 

This optimization strategy significantly enhanced operational efficiency, which made the Tulare plant no longer viable. 

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