US food major Conagra Brands is set to close its pie filling plant in Fennville, Michigan, affecting 85 workers.
In a statement, Conagra said the facility will close by the end of June this year.
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The company behind brands such as Birds Eye and Duncan Hines said the closure is a bid to manage its facilities and overall operations as “effectively and efficiently as possible”.
Conagra added the production of pie filling will be relocated to another facility, although specific details have not been disclosed.
The closure follows Conagra’s shutdown of its Birds Eye frozen vegetables plant in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, in April, which impacted 252 workers.
Alongside these operational changes, Conagra has trimmed its full-year sales forecast due to supply chain disruptions affecting two product categories.
Last month, the company projected organic net sales to decline by approximately 2%, revising its previous guidance of a potential 1.5% decline at worst to flat at best.
Conagra has also lowered its outlook for adjusted earnings per share to $2.35, down from the previous range of $2.45 to $2.50.
The adjusted operating margin forecast has been reduced to approximately 14.4% from 14.8%.
Unfavourable foreign exchange rates are expected to further impact earnings.
While announcing the second quarter results in December, Conagra Brands president and CEO Sean Connolly said the company faced a “continued challenging consumer environment”.
For the three months ending 24 November, net sales dipped 0.4%, reaching $3.2bn.
During the quarter, gross profit remained stable at $847m, while adjusted gross profit fell by 2.3% to $842m “as productivity and higher organic net sales were offset by the negative impacts of cost of goods sold inflation and unfavourable operating leverage”.
Diluted earnings per share (EPS) came in at $0.59, reflecting a 1.7% year-on-year decrease. Adjusted EPS stood at $0.70, down 1.4% from the prior year.
