POCATELLO — Amy’s Kitchen plans to permanently lay off dozens of workers at its Pocatello canning plant by the end of the year, as the organic food company closes its original Santa Rosa, California, manufacturing facility and shifts production across its remaining plants.

According to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, notice the company filed with the Idaho Department of Labor Thursday, the mass layoff at the Amy’s Kitchen facility at 221 Phil Meador Ave. is expected to be permanent, with affected employees separated from the company effective Dec. 18.

The notice lists job classifications facing cuts, including 14 Cook II positions, 14 Manufacturing Operator I positions, five Manufacturing Operator II positions and five Manufacturing Operator IV positions, along with several other classifications whose employee counts were not legible in records the Journal obtained.

Employees at the facility are not represented by a union, and no bumping rights exist, according to the notice, signed by Chief People Officer Goretti Hamlin.

The Petaluma, California-based company confirmed the cuts publicly Thursday, telling the Santa Rosa Press Democrat that about 51 jobs will be eliminated in Pocatello’s canning operation as that work shifts to the company’s Medford, Oregon, plant.

The Press Democrat also reported Amy’s is closing its Santa Rosa manufacturing plant in phases over the coming months, affecting 207 jobs there, as part of a broader reorganization of its manufacturing network.

“Amy’s is making changes to its manufacturing network so each facility can focus on the product categories where it is strongest,” the company said in a statement to the Press Democrat.

Pocatello Mayor Mark Dahlquist said Friday that Amy’s confirmed a smaller number locally.

“This morning, I spoke with management at the local Amy’s site,” Dahlquist said in a statement. “They confirmed that 49 local employees will be laid off by the end of December. Although this is disappointing news, Amy’s will remain a strong and viable employer for the Pocatello area.”

Dahlquist said the rest of the Pocatello plant’s workforce, which he put at 750 to 800 employees, will be retained even after the layoffs take effect. He said he was told the Santa Rosa plant will close by the end of next year, but that both the Medford and Pocatello facilities are expected to remain “strong and viable.”

“I spoke to an engineering firm today that’s assisting the Pocatello operation with several upgrades, so I’m optimistic Amy’s is here to stay for the long haul,” Dahlquist said.

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Dahlquist also said Amy’s told him the WARN notice was required because of the scale of the reduction at the company’s corporate level. It was not filed because of the layoff size in Pocatello alone, Dahlquist said.

“It’s a mass layoff for the company, but not a mass layoff for Pocatello,” Dahlquist said.

According to the Press Democrat, Amy’s opened its 479,000-square-foot Pocatello facility in 2014, three years after opening its Medford plant.

As part of the current restructuring, Pocatello is set to expand as the company’s designated entrée facility, while Medford will take on pizza, soup and burrito production, including the canning work moving from Pocatello, the Press Democrat reported.

Amy’s CEO Paul Schiefer told the Press Democrat the decision to close Santa Rosa, the company’s original plant, was not made lightly.

“This is hard, and it should be hard. We looked at every alternative before landing here,” Schiefer said, according to the Press Democrat. “We have a loyal workforce in Santa Rosa, and we’re incredibly grateful for everything they’ve contributed. We know this decision has a very real impact on people we value.”

Amy’s Kitchen told the Press Democrat that affected employees nationwide will receive separation packages, job-placement assistance and access to counseling through its employee assistance program.

Amy’s also said Thursday that its retail sales are nearing $1 billion annually and that demand for its products remains strong, framing the restructuring as an effort to align each plant with the product lines it produces most efficiently rather than a response to declining business.

The Santa Rosa plant has been the subject of past labor disputes, including a 2022 worker complaint over working conditions that led to a company boycott lasting more than two years, according to the Press Democrat.

Amy’s said this week that neither the boycott nor past unionization efforts at Santa Rosa played a role in the closure decision, and said it has not faced similar labor concerns at its Oregon or Idaho plants.

The company’s contact for questions related to the Pocatello layoffs is Tami Frye, according to the WARN notice, who can be reached at 208-239-5103 or tami.frye@amys.com.

The Idaho State Journal made multiple attempts to reach Frye for comment for this article but did not receive any responses.