Canadian co-packer Joriki Beverage reportedly shut down its only U.S. facility in Pittston, Pa., this week, according to regional news reports, giving employees no prior warning of an impending closure.
According to Newswatch 16, an ABC affiliate in Pennsylvania, 229 staff members at the company’s plant were left jobless after receiving termination emails on Tuesday, New Year’s Eve, informing them they would not be returning to work after the holiday.
In the email, as printed by Newswatch, Joriki told its staff that “unforeseen circumstances beyond the company’s control” led to the permanent closure of the plant. The company said that prior to the announcement it had been trying to procure a “going-concern transaction” that would allow it to keep operating, but that an acquisition deal fell through in the days before Christmas.
The company, it said, had been kept going by “financial support from one of its major customers and primary lenders to continue operating and pursue the transaction,” and therefore opted not to issue a 60-day WARN notice of termination to staff as that may have “jeopardized its efforts to secure a buyer or maintain essential funding from its customer and lenders.”
“These events were sudden, dramatic, and unexpected and have led to a significant financial crisis that the company believes cannot be realistically addressed without implementing the facility closure,” the notice stated.
Employees told Newswatch they were blindsided by the announcement, including management. A plant supervisor said there had been “no meetings or communication” about the company’s ongoing financial distress. Former staff members are now asking for the Pennsylvania Board of Labor to investigate the sudden closure.
Headquartered in Toronto, Joriki owns four beverage production facilities – three in Canada and the now-shuttered Pennsylvania location – and has capabilities for PET and carton package filling. The company was founded in 1990, and in 2019 it received investment from Canadian private equity firm Torquest.
Customers of the Pennsylvania site included Welch’s and Coca-Cola, Newswatch noted.
It was unclear whether the closure only impacted Joriki’s U.S. operations. The company did not immediately respond to an email from BevNET on Friday, and attempts to reach its Toronto headquarters by phone were unanswered.
Last year, officials with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency identified Joriki’s Pickering, Ontario facility as the source of a Listeria outbreak in Canada, impacting various plant-based milk products including Danone’s Silk brand and Walmart’s Great Value line. That outbreak led to three deaths, and at least 20 others were sickened.
Officials said they visited the site six times and found it failed to conduct proper environmental swabbing and product testing.
A recall for the outbreak was issued in July, and production at the Pickering plant was shut down indefinitely until “corrective measures” were implemented, the agency said in a statement in October.