The final day

• Filing out

Workers at Farley’s & Sathers packaging department file out of their workplace for the final time Friday afternoon in Round Lake.

Talk about it

ROUND LAKE — Nearly 175 employees of Farley’s & Sathers in Round Lake walked out the doors of the production facility for the last time on Friday, the last day of product packaging at the site.

The overnight shift at the plant finished work at 7 a.m. Friday, with subsequent shifts wrapping up their last day of work at 3 p.m. and 11 o’clock Friday night.

While the largest exodus of employees came on Friday, employee numbers have gradually been reduced in recent weeks.

“There were some people that were done the first part of January, and more were done the second week,” said Michelle Graber, public relations manager at Farley’s & Sathers. “The transition is continuing to proceed. We continue to expect it to be completed by the first quarter of 2010.”

Graber said things went smoothly with the first shift change Friday morning, but was unable to comment on whether additional security measures had been taken at the packaging facility for the day.

The closure of the packaging, warehousing and fleet operations will leave the Round Lake headquarters — which spans more than three city blocks — fairly quiet. Nearly 150 jobs remain at the facility’s corporate office.

Those employees are in customer service, financing, human resources, logistics, supply chain, information technology and administrative support areas, said Graber.

There are no plans to close the corporate office in Round Lake, she added. Rumors had circulated about that prospect since the announcement was made on Nov. 5 to relocate packaging operations to facilities in Chattanooga, Tenn., and Dallas, Texas.

“The rumor is incorrect,” Graber said. “Our headquarters will remain in Round Lake. There are a number of roles that are important and will continue to exist at this facility.”

As for the warehouse space and packaging area that make up a large portion of the 300,000-square-foot facility, Graber said the company will continue to assess the potential use for the future.

“No decisions have been made,” she added.

Offering assistance, relocating equipment

Since November’s announcement, Farley’s & Sathers has assisted employees throughout the transition phase.

“We have really worked hard — our human resources department — to provide assistance and have it on-site so people could take advantage of that,” said Graber. “We had the … Workforce Center (representatives) here, we had open positions posted and a Job Fair.”

She said the company also created a computer lab on-site for employees to utilize for Internet job searches, research and resume writing. Counseling services were provided as well.

“We do not have information from the workforce center on where employees have gone,” she added. “Some employees have relocated to some of the other facilities.”

Farley’s & Sathers provided a comprehensive severance package for employees, in addition to outplacement, Graber said.

As for the equipment and machines in the production facility, Graber said the company continues to move things around and move product out of the facility. Machinery will be relocated to other Farley’s & Sathers operations in the United States and Mexico.

End of an era

The Sathers name has been synonymous with candy treats ever since Round Lake grocer John Sather began peddling homemade cookies to retail stores throughout southwest Minnesota in the mid 1930s.

As time went on and his cookies gained popularity, Sather contracted with area bakers to meet the growing demand.

So began a business that, by the 1960s, had grown into lines of snack food items and candies. Sathers purchased the items in bulk, and developed a business packaging the treats into a variety of retail sizes.

“The company was regional in nature, but then (Sathers) began to distribute to Kmart stores by the 1970s,” said Steve Luitjens, senior director of planning for Farley’s & Sathers, during a March 2006 interview. Kmart’s dominant presence in retail nationwide brought new opportunities for Sathers, and took the small company from a five-state supplier of packaged confections to national status and name recognition.

In 1996, Sathers Candy Co. and Farley Candy Co. merged under the umbrella of Favorite Brands International, which was ultimately sold to Nabisco in 1999. When Kraft Foods purchased Nabisco in 2000, Kraft opted to sell the assets of Farley’s & Sathers to Catterton Partners. The sale took place in February 2002, and Farley’s & Sathers Candy Co. Inc. was formed.

At the Round Lake packaging facility, employees manned 10 production lines, packaging everything from Bit-O-Honey and butterscotches to Gummy and Sour Brite products, orange slices, Kiddie Mix and Super Bubble.

For years, people have seen the brightly colored Farley’s & Sathers trailers pulling into and out of Round Lake. While the fleet is now operating out of Chattanooga, Graber said the company will still be doing business in Minnesota, and will continue to provide national distribution.

Tags: state and region, round lake, farleys and sathers, news