Final Production Day at Shuttered Kraft Heinz Plant

The company shuts down the last production line, which is manufacturing thinly sliced ham.

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According to a report in the Wisconsin State Journal, Kraft Heinz shut down the final production line at its Oscar Mayer plant in Madison, WI on Thursday, June 29th.

The production line was manufacturing thinly sliced ham. The plant has been manufacturing hot dogs and cold cuts for about 98 years. 

According to the report, about 110 employees were still working at the mostly vacant plant, 15 were assigned to the production line. About 30 will remain on staff until July, cleaning the plant and dismantling equipment. 

The plant once employed 4,000 people in the 1970s. As of 2013, the company still had 1,300 employees based in Madison. 

At one point, the plant was packaging 10,000 pounds of hot dogs per hour. 

The Madison factory was one of seven plants to be closed after Kraft Heinz announced restructuring in November 2015. Of those, plants in Pennsylvania, Maryland, California, and Ontario, Canada have already been closed.

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