Snack food company Frito-Lay shuttered its decades-old Frito Lay plant just west of College Park Tuesday, cutting more than jobs at the facility alone. According to a required notice filed with the state Department Commerce, the company will also be cutting 46 jobs at a separate warehouse just down the street next May on Park Oaks Avenue, resulting in roughly 500 local jobs eliminated total.
A Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) letter, dated Nov. 4, notes that the facility near College Park at 2800 Silver Star Road shuttered Tuesday, immediately terminating the employment of 454 blue-collar employees that day, including dozens of laborers, packaging machine operators and maintenance workers involved in manufacturing operations. Frito-Lay, a $13 billion snack food subsidiary of Pepsi, also sold other properties along John Young Parkway earlier this year, the Orlando Business Journal reported.
“This was a difficult decision, as we know how much this site and its people mean to the Orlando community,” a Frito-Lay spokesperson told Orlando Weekly in an emailed statement about the closure. “This action was driven by business needs, and we are committed to treating every impacted employee with care — providing transition assistance, career support, and pay and benefits during this time.”…