The Allegan County manufacturing facility, which currently produces pie filling, is nearly a century old, starting off as Michigan Fruit Canners, according to Fennville City Administrator Kathryn Beemer.
“Conagra is our second-largest employer in the city - our first is Fennville Public Schools – and it’s played a significant role in our community’s history having been open for 96 years.”
Conagra owns and distributes about 70 food brands, such as Mrs. Butterworth’s, Duncan Hines and Slim Jim.
In a statement, the company said the decision to close the facility was “based on the need to operate our overall operations and facility footprint as effectively and efficiently as possible.”
“They usually annually process around 10 million pounds of West Michigan cherries, and so this is not just impacting the employees in our community but it’s also impacting area farmers.”
Beemer says the city will work closely with Conagra on their transition plan for the facility. It also deployed West Michigan Works! to assist employees.
“Everything from we’re organizing a job fair to they’ll have resources about navigating unemployment to assistance with resume writing and things like that.”
Conagra closed a Wisconsin facility that produces Birds Eye frozen products in 2024.
