"Frozen food aisle at Giant Food in Wheaton, Maryland"

Nestlé USA to Lay Off 77 Workers at Solon, Ohio, Plant

Nov. 7, 2023

Nestlé, which employs nearly 3,000 workers in Solon, offered few details on reasoning other than attempting to stay ahead of market and consumer demands.

Andy Hanacek

Nestlé USA filed a notice with the state of Ohio that it plans to lay off 77 employees at its Solon, Ohio, facility between Dec. 31 of this year and August of 2024, according to local news reports. The company employs approximately 3,000 people in the city, where it has a 60-acre “Center of Excellence” for its frozen and chilled foods businesses, the report said.

The company did not offer any details about the layoffs to the local news media other than saying it was an attempt to stay ahead of market and consumer trends. The layoffs were expected to be permanent, and reportedly were mostly office jobs.

Nestlé’s Stouffer’s brand anchors the Solon plant’s legacy, with Stouffer’s starting in Cleveland and moving to the southeast suburb in 1966. Nestlé bought Stouffer’s in 1973. In 2017, when Nestlé USA relocated its headquarters from California to Virginia, it also transferred approximately 300 technical, production and supply chain jobs to Solon as part of the move.

About the Author

Andy Hanacek | Senior Editor

Andy Hanacek has covered meat, poultry, bakery and snack foods as a B2B editor for nearly 20 years, and has toured hundreds of processing plants and food companies, sharing stories of innovation and technological advancement throughout the food supply chain. In 2018, he won a Folio:Eddie Award for his unique "From the Editor's Desk" video blogs, and he has brought home additional awards from Folio and ASBPE over the years. In addition, Hanacek led the Meat Industry Hall of Fame for several years and was vice president of communications for We R Food Safety, a food safety software and consulting company.