Thread regarding Dean Foods Co. layoffs

did dean foods lose the Jewel food stores account?

Looks like we a have a buyer for Chemung and DePere. SELECT MILK PRODUCERS

Rumors, the so called mystery buyer has bailed out

WELLS wanted no part in this dump. They are all Ice Cream now. WELLS corporate wanted no part in dealing with Dean Foods employee committee. That’s why they did not bid on saving the plant.

Le Mars this. Le Mars that. If DFA Le Mars was that great. Then why did Wells fail to pony up the 9 million to return to running a regional monopoly on the Midwest dairy emptier they built since 1913?

From what I heard. DFA Le Mars is full of rats and crybabies who won’t take NO for an answer. That’s why they never lost a negotiated deal with Dallas.

I work at DFA Le mars as well for the last 23 years. I live like a king. I live in a $320,000 home by the golf course. Have a 2019 truck. All the toys a guy could ask for. Plus still have $12,000 on my checking account. And $84,000 in savings.

We have Schuster trucking. Full fleet of trucks that already serve Chicago via Wells Enterprises. Just telling you that DFA will not hesitate to move plants.

Cutting labor and benefits at two plants is a hell of a lot cheaper than an 8 hour trip shipping cost any day of the week. Or a 4 hour trip to a distribution center to Des Moines.

Thats impressive that le mars has the capacity to service the Chicago market. 8 hr trip one way 487 miles but with your space age flying trucks and time machines its a nothing commute. Hell let's all go get doublewides and move to the sticks. We'll all live like kings and work at the crown jewel of all dfa plants, the mothership if you will. Think of the money they'll spend in shipping costs but will be made up in closing a bunch of plants to move them to one.

DFA Le Mars already had metric teams in there over the past 10 years trying to speed up fillers and machines to match units per hour to meet their quotas via calculations. So....what’s your point about an MBA?

FACT is. DFA Le Mars can handle both these plants plus our own accounts. And still work 5 days a week. Our current culture team is the best this plant has ever had.

Same can be said for the fluid team.

I remember several #1 and #2 plants that closed. But the Dean Foods way of calculating those numbers was always like comparing apples to potatoes. Try and make an MBA understand that sour cream and fluid milk are different or that a half gallon mold runs at a different rate from a gallon blow mold or that there are different kinds of fillers and casers and conveyors or that older equipment needs to be serviced more often than new equipment and all you get is a blank stare and then some new metric that compares blow mold speed to absenteeism on Wednesdays in the cooler.

If you are sitting here telling me you guys are making $34.00 an hour as a filler op. You are lying and no wonder DF went bankrupt paying you fools.

Le Mars was top 3 for a reason. I never seen your plant in the top 3 in any category.

Isn't Le Mars the plant that was bragging about having an employment committee who was doing an awesome job despite getting them about $10 an hour less than most other plants?

DFA Le Mars can package anything you give us. We are an ELITE operation here. The best of the best. We could beat any other plant with our ops. Especially our fluid team.

They've found half a dozen over the years. Money to be made in acidified and cultured. Just not fluid.

Wells Enterprises has already toured those plants. Confirmed.

Le Mars plant could run circles around these 3 plants combined in terms of ELITE production. We were in top 3 of all Deans plants for money and production.

DFA won’t hesitate to move everything to Le Mars.

Let them “ WALK” then. Wal Mart walked out and pulled rug under Deans in the past. And that contract is bigger than your local mom and pop shop customer.

Not a chance that customer will find another LOCAL facility and skilled labor to pump out 100,000 units of acid spur a day to meet demand.

All threat tactics.

DOJ order made it pretty clear DFA can't move customers or equipment from De Pere, Chemung, or Franklin. Not to say DFA won't try and do it anyway. But this particular customer has it in their contract that production has to be done at De Pere and has a history of disqualifying producers if their contracts aren't adhered to. Customer's business is big enough that it has been what has been keeping De Pere afloat for many years now. They'll also walk if they're not happy with the new owner- be it DFA or someone else. They always have a secondary supplier. De Pere is their main supplier, but they've gone through several secondary suppliers over the years.

Deans allowed it before. They brought in special “SCROUNDS” packaging equipment in Le Mars from a defunct plant.

DFA will do whatever it takes to move equipment to eliminate labor costs.

It's an acidified not cultured product and its not your standard retail or food service packaging. Would require relocating production equipment as typical filler would not work. Don't see customer allowing it.

You are pretty slow since you can’t do math. I said 16,000+ units an HOUR. One 8 hour shift would meet that account quota easy.

Pretty slow there in LeMars, this national customer needs over 100,000 units per day.

Move the Sour Cream to Le Mars DFA. We can pump out 16,000+ units an hour of sour and cheese on our fillers. Earn them over $300,000 a day in production. ELITE operators we have in our culture dept.

"The De Pere facility has a very large national sour cream customer..."
I bet DFA tries to move that customer's production to another DFA facility. Might not fly with the customer and shouldn't fly with the DOJ, but I'd be surprised if DFA doesn't try it.

Pl Bura will buy DePere plant and lease it back to DFA. McM**on will buy Chemung and use Country Delight label.

Would suspect DFA would have Kept all 3 if DOJ did not object. Depere might have been the only one they dont care as much about and knew its too close to kemp’s facilities like cedarburg. So now the doj makes them put them up for sale so there is “more competition. “

But the Midwest buyer will have no chance of operating Harvard & Depere as stand alone facilities. They will be in trouble in 24 months or less. Franklin is way under capacity from their high volumes in the past.. not sure who would step up in New England to buy as a stand alone there too unless the DOJ makes DFA give it away.

Relax. They are not letting those plants go. There is a deal in place to let "someone" we already know who, buy them and lease them to Dfa. So the new owner will be an owner in name only and run by dfa and their management.

DFA has to divest of those three per DOJ the sale will go through with them included but they will have a specified amount of time to sell them or DOJ will sell them. There is someone looking at Midwest plants but has no experience in production only sales so who knows. Only time will tell

The De Pere facility has a very large national sour cream customer, huge cooler, multiple blow molds, that’s interesting that DFA would let that go over Cedarburg.

I drive out of franklin am i gonna get a paycut if we are operational? Do you know of any layoffs out here few rumors off managers leaving

Depends on DOJ. DOJ might be OK with a shut down, might force a sale, or might allow it to be run as a separate business with independent management (last option would be a sham as they would never be really independent, but it's been allowed by DOJ before).

If DFA cant find a buyer do you see franklin ma. Closing down? thats where i work or just close it asap

I think DOJ will require DFA to divest more plants. DFA is the largest raw milk supplier and they also own a bunch of processing plants. They will control 60-70% market share in many regions without divestitures.

Confirmed. Illinois production among a few others will be sent to DFA LE MARS.

Whole document is the purchase agreement between DFA and Dean Foods.
My interpretation of that section is that DFA agrees to sell those 3 plants if that's what it takes to get the DOJ off their back.
It's not specifically stated, but if DOJ tries to require that DFA give up more plants then just those 3, then entire deal may have to be jeopardy because DFA in the agreement only agrees to get rid of those 3 if (emphasize IF) that's what the DOJ requires.
That section was likely included because of discussions that occurred with the DOJ and that led DFA to thinking that selling those 3 plants would is what the DOJ wants. So if selling those 3 plants is what the DOJ wants, DFA would still buy the plants and DFA would be responsible for selling them.

So please explain in layman's terms Docket 1572 - Page 63.

Thanks. It's in Docket 1572. Page 63.
"Buyer shall, if necessary to obtain any required Governmental Authorization, propose, negotiate, commit to or effect, by consent decree, hold separate order or otherwise, the sale, divestiture, hold separate, or disposition of no more than the single fluid milk processing plant of Seller or any Selling Entities at each of the following locations: Harvard (Chemung), Illinois; De Pere, Wisconsin; and Franklin, Massachusetts, including additional commercially reasonable ancillary conditions required by the Antitrust Division, but not including any additional divestiture, hold separate, or other disposition requirements."

Dean's made the claim in a filing to the court that part of DFAs 'deal' with the DOJ was that they would shed facilities in Ill, WI and MA. DePere was named in the filing

Cost to produce at Cedarburg much lower than DePere or Chemung, so don't see Cedarburg closing.