An uncertain future: (From left) State Sen. Mike Stack, state Reps. Kevin Boyle and Brendon Boyle attended a news conference to express their discontent with the possible closing of the Kraft plant. TIMES FILE PHOTO
Representatives of government and industry will meet downtown Thursday, Nov. 21, to discuss the future of a Northeast landmark.
The possibility that the old Kraft plant at Byberry and the Boulevard will close and erase almost 300 jobs has given public officials plenty to worry about, so they’re going to sit down with representatives of Mondelez, the company that now owns the bakery, to get some questions answered and make a few suggestions. That meeting will be a private sitdown with company executives, members of the Governor’s Action Team, state Sen. Mike Stack, state Reps. Kevin Boyle and Brendan Boyle and City Councilman Brian O’Neill in attendance along with other state and city Commerce Department officials.
Discussions in that meeting will center on keeping the plant open, but will include talk of how the company could expand in the city, said Brendan Boyle’s spokesman, Mark Ladley.
Stack and the Boyle brothers on Nov. 13 also called for a very public meeting, town hall style, in which members of the public and plant workers could talk to company executives about what Mondelez intends to do, said Ladley.
A spokeswoman for Mondelez, which split off from Kraft last year, said the company told its employees on Nov. 6 that it was considering closing down the 57-year-old bakery and heavily investing in expansion in New Jersey and Virginia. Nothing has been decided yet, company spokeswoman Laurie Guzzinati said last week.
Guzzinati last week said Mondelez, whose well-known brands include Oreos, Ritz crackers, Teddy Grahams, Cadbury chocolates and Tang, is considering spending $100 million to expand its baking facilities in Fairlawn, N.J., and Richmond, Va.
But, the refrain from the company and the city has been: Nothing is certain yet. ••
