Laid off from Del Monte Foods.

What Del Monte Foods layoffs have meant for employees

Several of the closings on record moved Del Monte's production instead of ending it. Del Monte said its Plymouth, Indiana tomato work would move to Hanford, California, as Inside Indiana Business reported, and in 2019 the company told Food Dive its other six U.S. plants would take over from the vegetable plants it was closing, calling that part of its "asset-light strategy." When Del Monte sold Hanford in 2025, it signed co-packing deals with outside companies to keep making what the plant had made, the company said in its July 2025 court filing. Watching the work you did carry on in another building, or at a packer the company hired, is its own kind of loss. In announcing the Turkey, North Carolina closing in 2016, Del Monte told the Sampson Independent, through its PR firm, that laid-off workers could apply at other locations and would be considered along with other candidates.

By the company's own account, the squeeze came from both directions. Del Monte told the court it had committed to high production for its 2023 pack, then watched consumer demand fall in fiscal 2024 and spent more on promotions to move the surplus, while rising rates pushed its annual cash interest to about $125 million, more than its projected EBITDA. Its answer before the filing was to close plants with high overhead costs and lean on outside suppliers, and starting in 2024 it cut its inventory by about 30%, partly by packing less each season.

Many of these were harvest jobs. About 1,370 of the roughly 2,500 people at Del Monte's production facilities worked only during the pack season, which runs June through October for many products, the court filing says, and Stanislaus County supervisor Vito Chiesa told CapRadio the Modesto cannery jobs paid $20 to $40 an hour, work he said is hard to replace. He said the county's workforce development office helps laid-off workers with resumes, interview preparation and job listings. The company's letter to the county board left bumping rights for union members to their labor agreements, said non-union employees had none, and offered to coordinate services with the county's workforce board. If you were represented by Teamsters Local 948 at Modesto, it may be worth asking a union representative how the contract handled bumping and whether separate severance terms applied.

The sale came with job offers for some. Del Monte Foods employees named on a schedule in the deal were offered jobs by the vegetable buyer or its designee, and a March 2026 amendment clarified their benefits, Fresh Del Monte's June-quarter 10-Q says, but the filing doesn't say how many accepted or which company employs them now. If you were offered a job that way, it's worth keeping whatever paperwork came with the offer, including any benefits summary. The plan, the confirmation order and the rest of the case file are free of charge on the debtors' case website, as the effective-date notice points out.

The names make all this harder to follow. Fresh Del Monte, the buyer of the vegetable and tomato businesses, was an unaffiliated company that held Del Monte's licenses for fresh produce and for processed foods in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, the court filing says, and the sale gave it global ownership of the brand, subject to existing licenses, as Del Monte Foods' sale-completion release describes. Pacific Coast Producers got rights to sell shelf-stable fruit under the Del Monte and S&W names in the U.S., Puerto Rico and Mexico, the same release says.

If you're looking for the filing that covered your plant, our WARN tracker carries Del Monte's under Del Monte Foods, Del Monte Foods Corporation II and Sager Creek Foods. If you're filing for unemployment, there's more on California unemployment benefits, Washington unemployment benefits and Wisconsin unemployment benefits.

A sourced history of Del Monte Foods layoffs

• January 2026, Del Monte sets Modesto and Hughson closings

  Del Monte announced it would close the Modesto cannery, CapRadio reported, and January 30 filings in our WARN tracker covered 765 jobs there and 11 at Hughson. Its April 6 letter to Stanislaus County put first separations around April 7 and scheduled 25 Modesto employees to leave from June 9.

• May 2025, Del Monte closes its Yakima fruit plant

  Del Monte closed its Yakima, Washington plant in May 2025 and was shifting some fruit work to Modesto, sending cherries to a co-packer and dropping apples, it told the court in a July 2025 filing.

• January 2025, Del Monte sets Hanford tomato plant closing

  Del Monte set a March 28 start for cutting 378 jobs at its Hanford tomato plant in a letter the San Joaquin Valley Sun reported. The plant ran at 28% utilization in 2024, the company said in a July 2025 court filing.

• April 2024, Del Monte ends canning at Toppenish and Markesan

  Del Monte closed canning operations at Toppenish, Washington, and Markesan, Wisconsin, laying off about 215 workers and cutting its workforce about 25%, in what its July 2025 court filing called a pivot toward an "asset-light" structure.

• August 2019, Del Monte closing three plants, plans Cambria sale

  Sleepy Eye, Minnesota, and Mendota, Illinois, plants were set to shut around June 2020, Cambria, Wisconsin, was to be sold and Crystal City, Texas, had closed, Del Monte told Food Dive, with about 188 full-time and 656 seasonal layoffs.

• 2016, Del Monte announces Turkey, North Carolina closing

  Closing the Turkey plant Del Monte bought from Sager Creek in 2015 would affect 230 full-time and 92 seasonal workers, the Sampson Independent reported; our WARN tracker holds its April 20, 2016 filing under Sager Creek Foods.

What to do if you're laid off from Del Monte Foods

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Del Monte Foods's biggest hubs: California, Washington, Wisconsin. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
• Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what Del Monte Foods's hub states run: California, Washington, Wisconsin, and every other state is here.
• Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
• Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
• Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.