The Cargill Inc. facility in Milwaukee will be receiving more production work and an estimated 15 jobs in January due to a Pennsylvania plant closure.
The Minneapolis-based Cargill Inc. announced today it will close a Lititz, Penn., plant in January and shift its production of chocolate, compound and chocolate liquor offerings to Milwaukee, along with plants in three other Pennsylvania locations and Ontario.
Cargill spokesman Pete Stoddart said the Milwaukee facility, located at 12500 W. Carmen Ave., will see an estimated 15 new jobs in manufacturing, customer service and office operations. Some jobs may be relocations from other Cargill facilities or they may be new hires.
Among the 15 jobs will be North American cocoa and chocolate leadership, administrative and customer-focused roles, as those positions are being centralized in Milwaukee and Minneapolis. Those functions were previously based in Lititz and other unspecified North American locations.
Chocolate, compound and chocolate liquor offerings are already made in Milwaukee, but production will be increased. It is not yet known, however, if more shifts will be added.
Stoddart did not readily have information on the number of current Milwaukee employees or the facility’s square footage.
Cargill said it is closing the Pennsylvania plant and shifting production work to other facilities in order to bring its customers expanded product offerings and increased production capacities and efficiencies.
Cargill’s cocoa and chocolate business operates globally with 27 sites in 11 countries with more than 3,000 employees. It serves customer needs worldwide with a range of cocoa and chocolate products made for confectionery, bakery, dairy and other applications.
In 2014, Cargill shut down its Milwaukee beef harvest facility, which had 600 employees. The affected employees were offered positions at facilities across the Midwest. The closure was due to a tight cattle supply brought about by producers retaining cattle for herd expansion.
