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Despite a reduction in the amount of water demand at its Monterey plant, Perdue Farms said that production continues at the location and there have been no layoffs.
The plant has shifted production to focus on retail on direct sales according to a statement from Perdue’s corporate office. Previously the location was dedicated to food service production.
“We mostly produce products for food service customers at this facility – an industry which is down considerably right now,” the statement said. “As a whole, we’ve seen a significant uptick in demand in both retail orders as well as through our new direct-to-consumer e-commerce website, PerdueFarms.com, and have shifted much of our total production across the company to accommodate the variation in demand.”
Maryland-based Perdue Farms is one of the largest food processing companies in the United States with annual sales in excess of $6 billion dollars.
Perdue Farms Director of Corporate Communications Diana Souder (sour-der) said that although there has been a temporary reduction in production due to reduced demand, manpower at the Monterey plant has not been affected.
The reduction in water demand at Perdue’s Monterey facility was discussed in Wednesday’s Water and Sewer Committee conference call meeting.
Water and Sewer director Duane Jarrett said the amount of water used at the plant hasdecreased in the week after Easter.
“They were hammering down real hard and pulling down a ton of water,” Jarrett said. “Since Sunday I don’t know what happened up there, but they’ve really fallen off.”
The Monterey factory began operating in 1984 as Fast Food Merchandisers before being bought by Perdue Farms in 1998.
