Gov. Scott Walker said the CEO of Kraft Heinz told him company officials had been considering closing the Madison plant for years.
Before the merger into Kraft Heinz, Kraft Foods Group had thought about closing the nearly 100-year-old plant because it wasn’t operating at full capacity and wasn’t “very efficient and cost effective,” the CEO told Walker.
“The CEO for the company made very clear they purposely did not reach out to the state, to the city, to the county … because they weren’t looking for anything,” Walker said.
Michael Mullen, Kraft Heinz’s senior vice president of corporate and government affairs, said in an email he was on Monday’s call along with Kraft Heinz CEO Bernardo Hees.
“The Governor understands that the closing of the Madison factory was based entirely on the need to reduce operational redundancies and eliminate excess capacity within our North American network,” Mullen said. “We are committed to working alongside Governor Walker and his team to find a potential buyer [for the site].”
Walker, who spoke with Madison Mayor Paul Soglin on Friday, said he’s “very interested” in helping with Madison’s efforts to build a public market. Soglin asked Walker for state money to help pay for the project.
Walker said he’s interested because the proposal wouldn’t just build a retail-only public market, but would include food processors and other companies that help further the state’s food and beverage industry, which Walker said has been part of his administration’s focus.
“It’s bigger than just a market,” Walker said. “What they’re looking for is leveraging something we’ve been doing at the state level.”
— By Polo Rocha
WisBusiness.com
