UPDATE BrightFarms closing in Snyder County next month
Employees were notified Wednesday that production will cease March 14, five years after the 280,000-square-foot plant opened in Pawling Station off Route 522 in Penn Township.
After releasing a statement that the company was "pausing" operations, BrightFarms clarified late Thursday that the plant will close.
'We have made the difficult decision to suspend operations at our Selinsgrove farm. As BrightFarms grows with new, larger farms, we are grateful for our Pennsylvania team and will support them through this transition. We remain committed to servicing our Pennsylvania customers," the statement said.
"Our newest farms in Illinois, Georgia, and Texas, each have the capacity to scale up to 40 acres. These new greenhouses will help us reach over two-thirds of the U.S. population with healthy, leafy greens," the statement said.
Company officials did not address questions regarding reasons for the closure.
Established in 2011, the Irvington, N.Y.-based company was not required to give employees 60-day notice under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act because it did not meet the threshold of 100 employees.
The Snyder County plant opened in 2020 as the company invested more than $20 million building the hydroponic greenhouse where two million pounds of salad greens are grown. Located in a Keystone Opportunity Expansion Zone, BrightFarms is exempt from paying taxes on the 21-acre site until 2029. It was the largest plant the company operated at the time.
"Unfortunately, I'm not surprised," Snyder County Commissioner Joe Kantz said of the pending closure.
From the beginning of its operation, he said, BrightFarms had issues with wastewater disposal and was spending "several hundreds of thousands of dollars" a year trucking the water to a treatment facility in Milton.
Kantz said he's also heard the plant may need renovations, but no one from the company has been in contact with county or municipal officials to discuss any issues or even confirm a pending shutdown.
A BrightFarms employee who learned Wednesday they will be out of a job in a few weeks said the company provided an email contact for BrightFarms senior director of marketing Jessica Soare in the event they were approached by media for information. The automated email response said Soare would be out of the office Feb. 25 and provided no other way to reach her, but it did prompt the updated response from the company confirming the plant closure.
A rapid response team from Advance Central PA will meet with employees Tuesday at the plant to provide a wide range of information, including reemployment possibilities, health care and prescription assistance, Executive Director Erica Mulberger said.
In addition, CareerLink will host a job fair in early March, she said.
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