Soon, 379 workers at a Lamb Weston Holdings, Inc. potato processing plant in Connell, Wash., will be out of a job.
Mayor Lee Barrow estimates the closure of the plant in central Washington will result in a loss of $500,000 to the community’s roughly $20 million annual budget.
“But our biggest concern are those displaced workers,” Barrow said. “We got word today just like everyone else. We are as shocked and saddened as anyone.”
Based on a population estimate from the city of Connell for 2024, the layoffs equate to more than 7% of all residents of the small farm town located just northeast of Kennewick.
Lamb Weston is food processing company based in Eagle, Idaho. It is one of the world’s largest producers and processors of frozen french fries, waffle fries and other frozen potato products, according to its website.
The layoffs will begin Nov. 30, according to a Tuesday news release from the Washington Employment Security Department.
About two-thirds of the workers expected to be laid off are residents of Connell or the nearby area. The rest are likely workers from the Tri-Cities, Othello and Moses Lake, Barrow estimated.
The city-owned water utility services generated about half of its revenue from the plant, he said.
“We’re still crunching the numbers of the impact on our budget,” he said. “We will have to make some cuts.”
Compared to the first fiscal quarter of 2024, Lamb Weston officials estimated net sales during the first quarter of next year to decline 1%, income from operations to decline 34%, and net income to decline 46%, according to financial forecasts released by the company.
\Tom Werner, president and CEO of the firm, said in a company earnings report released Tuesday that the losses are driven by a decrease in demand for frozen potatoes from restaurants. He anticipates this trend to persist.
“To drive operational and cost efficiencies, we are taking actions that include the permanent closure of an older, higher-cost processing facility and the temporary curtailment of certain production lines and schedules in our manufacturing network,” Werner said. “We are also taking actions to reduce operating expenses, including reducing headcount and eliminating certain unfilled job positions, as well as reducing capital expenditures.”
The city of Connell hadn’t reached Lamb Weston officials, according to Barrow.
“We don’t know if they’re going to lease out the building or still use it for something like potato storage for instance,” he said. “Hopefully, we can find someone else in the industry to fill the void.”
At this time, city workers are uncertain what will become of the factory that sits on the southern edge of Connell.
“We hope to talk to Lamb Weston and make clear that we don’t want them to leave,” Barrow said. “If things turn around, we will sit at the table with them to see if there is something we can do to bring any semblance of an operation back.”
