Salinas, CA. – December 4, 2006 – Monterey Gourmet Foods, Inc. today announced the completion of its plant consolidation project and the realignment of the Company's operations.
First announced in March, 2006, the initial stage focused on consolidating production of two manufacturing facilities in Salinas and transferring packaged sauce production to the Company’s CIBO Naturals plant in Seattle. Moving sauce production to Washington State incorporates several benefits, including: having one plant solely focused on producing sauces within the Company, lower payroll expenses and associated labor costs, and a lower tax base. Consolidating the two Salinas facilities eliminates unused space, redundant sanitation, maintenance and supervision.
Eric Eddings, Chief Executive Officer of Monterey Gourmet Foods, explains, “Consolidating our Salinas plants and focusing on specific products allows us to reduce costs and increase efficiencies. We have aligned our production capabilities with our core competencies which will maximize our strengths and solidify our commitment to quality.”
Mr. Eddings continued, “Another component of our realignment has been a concurrent program designed to employ the superb talent pool available throughout our different companies that will benefit the organization as a whole. With the formation of a management executive committee to implement and execute key strategic projects and a complete overhaul of our personnel reporting methodologies, we have integrated our resources and emerged as one company with one sales force and one marketing department managing multiple brands in the gourmet refrigerated and frozen food category.”
Mr. Eddings further stated, “A major component of our realignment is to maximize talents of individuals by expanding their responsibilities across all of our brands. Consistent with this new direction we are pleased to announce the promotion of Karina Graham to Director of Product Development, Bob Donaldson to VP of Retail Sales and Joe Stirlacci to VP of Club Channel Sales. All three of these key players have demonstrated success in the growth of their respective business units and will now have responsibility across all Monterey Gourmet Foods Brands and Categories. In addition, to further drive innovation we have hired two renowned culinary consultants to support our internal product development. We expect these combined resources to help the Company fuel growth well into the future.”
“2006 has been a year of great change for Monterey Gourmet Foods. Now with the completion of our plant consolidation and our reporting realignment, we look forward to 2007 as a more streamlined company in terms of our manufacturing capability and reporting structure. Together, these elements position us to be much more effective within our competitive markets,” concluded Mr. Eddings.
Monterey Gourmet Foods manufactures USDA inspected, fresh gourmet refrigerated food products at its integrated 143,000 square foot corporate headquarters, distribution, and manufacturing facilities in Salinas, (Monterey County) California, Seattle, Washington, and Eugene, Oregon. Monterey Gourmet Foods has national distribution of its products in over 10,000 retail and club stores throughout the United States and selected regions of Canada, the Caribbean, Latin America, and Asia Pacific.