Amy's Kitchen plans to close its Santa Rosa manufacturing plant in phases over the next several months, eliminating about 207 jobs at the Northpoint Parkway site and contributing to roughly 260 affected positions across its manufacturing network. The company also plans to cut about 51 jobs at its Pocatello, Idaho, canning operation as that work moves to Medford, Oregon. Layoffs are expected to begin late this year and conclude by summer 2027.
The Petaluma-based maker of organic vegetarian packaged foods confirmed the plan in a report from The Press Democrat, which first reported the phased shutdown. CEO Paul Schiefer said Amy's had evaluated alternatives before choosing to close the Santa Rosa operation. The company attributed the decision to a manufacturing network that has become more complicated than its current needs warrant and said the Santa Rosa plant accounts for only a small share of its total production.
Amy's plans to assign production by product category. Pocatello, which the company opened in 2014 after acquiring a 500,000-square-foot former Kraft Heinz plant and planning $75 million in upgrades, according to Capital Press, will become the company's entrée facility. Medford, opened in 2005 and constructed specifically to support the company's meal production, according to East Idaho News, will handle pizza, soup and burritos. Amy's said it plans to offer separation packages, job-placement help and counseling to affected employees, while emphasizing that the closure is not a judgment on their work.
A Company Built in Petaluma, Now Consolidating Elsewhere
Andy and Rachel Berliner started Amy's Kitchen in 1987, and the company will keep its corporate headquarters in Petaluma even as manufacturing moves out of Sonoma County. The Berliners have also been stepping back from daily operational leadership; the co-founders officially put their oceanfront Stinson Beach estate on the market on May 19, 2026, for $16 million, as Hoodline reported in its coverage of the listing.
What the Layoff Records and Plant Histories Show
The Santa Rosa shutdown follows a separate round of permanent layoffs recorded by the California Employment Development Department: 283 workers at Amy's Northpoint Parkway site and 22 at its Dutton Avenue facility, effective Dec. 3, 2024, according to California Employment Development Department WARN records. Those records establish the scale and timing of Amy's earlier Santa Rosa-area cuts, but do not by themselves provide a countywide comparison with other recent manufacturing losses. The available company history distinguishes the facilities mainly by how they were developed and what they produce, rather than by documenting different labor arrangements. Amy's official history says the Oregon kitchen was built from the ground up as demand grew, unlike earlier operations that adapted existing buildings; the current plan would assign Medford pizza, soup and burrito production while Pocatello becomes the entrée facility.
The Santa Rosa plant employed about 630 people in 2022, per the Press Democrat's reporting. The company said demand for its products remains strong, reporting retail sales nearing $1 billion earlier this year and citing leading dollar share in several core organic categories: 90% in frozen pizza, 92% in frozen entrées, 70% in frozen handheld foods and 47% in shelf-stable soup, all attributed to retail sales data. Amy's said the restructuring reflects shifts in consumer demand and product mix since the pandemic.
A Pattern of Retrenchment Across California
Amy's Kitchen closed a 74,000-square-foot leased production facility in East San Jose in July 2022, laying off 331 workers just 16 months after the plant opened; state WARN paperwork filed at the time showed the facility was losing roughly $1 million per month amid inflation, supply chain bottlenecks and spiking pizza-ingredient costs, according to Hoodline's earlier reporting on the plant's eventual sale. That East San Jose property was purchased by real estate investment firm Lift Partners for $18.4 million, according to a September 10, 2026, report, following the July 2022 closure, Hoodline previously reported in a story about the San Jose plant's sale.
Amy's has also made other changes to its operations. In October 2024, the company issued WARN notices for the permanent layoff of 305 California employees, split between 283 workers at the Northpoint Parkway plant and 22 at the Dutton Avenue facility, according to SFGATE. The company also closed its Rohnert Park drive-thru on March 8 of this year, which had been the company's first and the last of four such restaurants in California.
Safety Fines and a Boycott That Only Recently Ended
The Santa Rosa plant's history includes friction well beyond economics. In January 2022, Cecilia Luna Ojeda filed a complaint alleging unsafe conditions and injuries tied to repetitive, fast-paced production work, a complaint that cited prior Cal/OSHA violations, according to the Press Democrat. That complaint contributed to a formal Cal/OSHA fine of $25,000 for 13 health and safety violations at the plant, as reported by SFGATE.
Labor organizing drives that same year led UNITE HERE Local 19 and Teamsters Local 665 to file unfair labor practice charges against Amy's Kitchen with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging union-busting, according to Teamsters Local 665. Company management denied union-busting allegations at the time and attributed subsequent plant closures strictly to financial and operational pressures. A related boycott ended in June 2024 following discussions involving Santa Rosa workers, the Food Empowerment Project, Veggie Mijas and company executives; the Food Empowerment Project said Amy's agreed to bilingual employee service representatives, safety improvements and a 3% merit wage increase as part of that resolution, per the Press Democrat's account. Amy's Kitchen has said the boycott and unionization efforts did not increase local operating costs or influence the Santa Rosa closure, and that it has not faced similar worker concerns or unionization efforts at its Oregon and Idaho facilities. Mike Resch, cited in the Press Democrat's reporting, said the company's safety investments, culture and record are powerful.
Sonoma County's Manufacturing Squeeze
Sonoma State University economist Robert Eyler has said food manufacturing at scale is becoming more difficult in Sonoma County, a dynamic reflected in Amy's decision to concentrate production in Idaho and Oregon instead.
Amy's Kitchen still sells more than 260 products through retail outlets in the United States and abroad. Even as the company retains its Petaluma headquarters and its footprint in national grocery aisles, the Santa Rosa plant's closure marks the end of Amy's manufacturing at the Northpoint Parkway site.
