Kralis Bros. Foods To Close; May Reopen
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
MENTONE - Kralis Bros. Foods will close Friday, leaving 115 workers without jobs, but there is the potential for good news, too.
Valley Fresh Inc., Turlock, Calif., which owns the Mentone plant, is negotiating to sell Kralis Bros. Foods to an undisclosed company. If that occurs, the plant could reopen.
"Hopefully," said plant manager Mike Parker, "we resume operations next week sometime. That's the goal."
"We always hate to lose any of our longtime industries in the county," said Joy McCarthy-Sessing, Warsaw-Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce director. The loss will have an impact on workers and the community, she said.
Kralis Bros. processes meat from hens that no longer can lay eggs. Parker said legs, thighs and wings were exported to China. The breasts had been going to Valley Fresh's California plant to be processed into canned and dried chicken products. The cost of shipping the chickens, however, got to the point where it was no longer economically viable, Parker said. Kralis Bros. always got their chickens for free basically, but that also changed.
Corporate headquarters, Parker said, is working on employees' benefits but could not provide further information. Negotiations of the sale of Kralis is still underway so he could not provide further information on the out-of-state company looking to purchase the Mentone plant. If the company does purchase Kralis, Parker said, "The plant will carry on." The new owners have new processes and new marketing in mind for Kralis Bros. that did not exist with Valley Fresh.
Employees at Kralis Bros. earn about $8 to $10 per hour and are members of the United Food Commercial Workers Union, Indianapolis.
Kralis Bros. processes about 350,000 birds per week.
"That's a lot of birds," said Parker.
Kralis Bros. has been owned by various companies through the years, according to Parker.
Suzie Light, Warsaw, daughter of the late Jerry Kralis, said today her grandfather Joseph Kralis and three brothers began the company in Gary in 1939.
Her father started the Mentone plant in 1951. Kralis was sold in 1973 to Flowers Foods, but Jerry continued to work for the company for the next 10 years before retiring.
Light said both her father and grandfather sold chicken products to the Campbell Soup company. [[In-content Ad]]
MENTONE - Kralis Bros. Foods will close Friday, leaving 115 workers without jobs, but there is the potential for good news, too.
Valley Fresh Inc., Turlock, Calif., which owns the Mentone plant, is negotiating to sell Kralis Bros. Foods to an undisclosed company. If that occurs, the plant could reopen.
"Hopefully," said plant manager Mike Parker, "we resume operations next week sometime. That's the goal."
"We always hate to lose any of our longtime industries in the county," said Joy McCarthy-Sessing, Warsaw-Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce director. The loss will have an impact on workers and the community, she said.
Kralis Bros. processes meat from hens that no longer can lay eggs. Parker said legs, thighs and wings were exported to China. The breasts had been going to Valley Fresh's California plant to be processed into canned and dried chicken products. The cost of shipping the chickens, however, got to the point where it was no longer economically viable, Parker said. Kralis Bros. always got their chickens for free basically, but that also changed.
Corporate headquarters, Parker said, is working on employees' benefits but could not provide further information. Negotiations of the sale of Kralis is still underway so he could not provide further information on the out-of-state company looking to purchase the Mentone plant. If the company does purchase Kralis, Parker said, "The plant will carry on." The new owners have new processes and new marketing in mind for Kralis Bros. that did not exist with Valley Fresh.
Employees at Kralis Bros. earn about $8 to $10 per hour and are members of the United Food Commercial Workers Union, Indianapolis.
Kralis Bros. processes about 350,000 birds per week.
"That's a lot of birds," said Parker.
Kralis Bros. has been owned by various companies through the years, according to Parker.
Suzie Light, Warsaw, daughter of the late Jerry Kralis, said today her grandfather Joseph Kralis and three brothers began the company in Gary in 1939.
Her father started the Mentone plant in 1951. Kralis was sold in 1973 to Flowers Foods, but Jerry continued to work for the company for the next 10 years before retiring.
Light said both her father and grandfather sold chicken products to the Campbell Soup company. [[In-content Ad]]