The impending closure of Wildbrine is another blow to food production in Sonoma County

After Amy’s Kitchen In early October, it laid off almost 15% of its workforceanother local food production company has also fallen prey to industry challenges.

Now Wildbrine, a Santa Rosa-based maker of naturally fermented foods, has reported plans to close. The subsidiary of Madison, Wisconsin-based Fermented Food Holdings has laid off 37 employees.

Neither Wildbrine CEO Chris Glab nor the parent company’s management would comment on the matter. But under the Oct. 1 Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN), executives working in positions ranging from maintenance to production will be laid off next month, ahead of the plant’s closure by the end of the year.

This trend is becoming increasingly common in North Bay food production.

Steve Gomez, formerly part of the training department at Amy’s before the recent layoffs, is using the experience to turn his career around. He is now studying urban planning at Sonoma State University and is on track to graduate next semester.

The 28-year-old Rohnert Park resident had to endure four rounds of layoffs and earn six promotions before realizing that food production wasn’t the career path he wanted to pursue long-term.

Still, Gomez said he is grateful for his experience with the Petaluma-based health food company and the severance package that will allow him to pay bills while he focuses on his education.

“I didn’t always plan to stay. I was supposed to stay for three months, and it turned into three years,” he said on November 8. Gomez saw that the impact of automation on manufacturing had reached Sonoma County. “I saw it when I was there. They removed some people doing repetitive tasks and introduced a robotic burrito folder.”

Speaking of automation

Amy’s Kitchen is not alone. Many companies with assembly lines have turned to automated machines as a way to reduce labor costs in the age of artificial intelligence and robotic systems.

According to an October report from the Economic Development Collaborative, the total manufacturing workforce in Sonoma County is 23,000. That’s a decrease of 1,000 employees since 2019.

Industry Spotlight: Manufacturing in Sonoma County, California

Sonoma County officials indicate the decline in an industry that contributes about $5 billion, or 13.9%, to the county’s gross domestic product is expected to continue.

The province’s economic department predicts that manufacturing employment will decline by about 19 jobs per quarter over the next five years, for a total of 410 fewer jobs in the first quarter of 2029, a loss of 0.4%.

The provincial partnership’s executive director, Ethan Brown, admits the problem could be worse given the “economic headwinds and uncertainty across the country.”

Food production in particular is expected to remain flat, according to labor market data from the California Employment Development Department. In 2023, the subsector employed 4,055 workers, compared to 4,601 the year before. In the first quarter of this year, that number had fallen further to 3,849.

“And with recent developments at Amy’s and Wildbrine, we expect even more reductions,” said Scott Adair, Santa Rosa’s Chief Economic Development Officer.

Adair attributes the decline to a trickle-down effect caused by shifts in consumer behavior.

“Although inflation has fallen recently, consumers are still feeling the effects of several years of high inflation, not seen since pre-pandemic levels,” he said, adding especially with regard to “higher ” to notice. “When Food and grocery costs remain highconsumers tend to switch from name brands to generic or store brands to save money.”

This shift has likely increased challenges for companies like Amy’s and Wildbrine, both positioned as organic and high-end brands, ultimately resulting in layoffs, he said.

“Hundreds of workers without income can have a huge impact on our economy, especially if those individuals don’t have safety nets,” he said. “Such a loss could mean that there will be landlords who do not receive rent, that there will be coffee shops with (fewer) customers or that cheaper and less nutritious food will be purchased for the family.”

For these reasons, Adair supports a “rapid response” effort to help affected workers find new jobs.

On the national front

American food production, which represents 1% of national employment with more than 17 million jobs, has shown growth.

According to Lightcast, a global data analytics company based in Moscow, Idaho, these jobs grew 6.6% nationally from 2017 to 2022, with projected growth expected to reach 8% by 2027.

These jobs were concentrated in the Midwest and Alaska, Lightcast data shows. The top five states were Nebraska, Arkansas, Iowa, Wisconsin and Kansas.

California failed to reach the top 10.

Of the 1.3 million Californians who worked in all manufacturing sectors over the past decade, 300,000 have retired or left, according to Lance Hastings, president of the California Manufacturing and Technology Association.

“Filling these jobs is something that keeps executives up at night,” he said of the Golden State’s more than 35,000 manufacturing companies. “Sure, this is the best workforce in the country, but that comes at a cost.”

Hastings noted that the high cost of doing business in California is a burden, citing expenses related to energy, regulations and a workforce that requires higher wages to sustain a California lifestyle as major factors affecting the ability of companies to control their expenses.

“California manufacturers are going to have to try to grapple with what the future workforce will even look like post-COVID,” he said.