Fair Lawn Nabisco Plant To Bake Last Cookies Friday. What's Next?

FAIR LAWN, NJ — The smell of Oreo cookies has become synonymous with a certain stretch of Route 208 in Fair Lawn, but those days are quickly coming to an end.

The Nabisco factory that has operated in Fair Lawn for years, employing hundreds from around the area, is set to stop production after Friday, a Mondelez official confirmed. News of a summer closure was first announced in February, with officials citing an outdated facility and consolidation of production as reasons. Read more: Nabisco Plant In Fair Lawn To Close In 2021

Since then, local businesses and officials have been hard at work trying to find new employment for the more than 600 people who will be out of a job. But replacing the smell, and the job source, will be a mountainous task.

"We are going to miss the smell of fresh baked cookies that equates to hundreds of jobs," said Fair Lawn Mayor Kurt Peluso.

"Our focus over these last few months has been on finding jobs for these employees who will be unemployed, even though they worked tirelessly during the peak of the pandemic."

Northjersey.com reports that over 100 workers were let go in July, with the remainder of the current employees set to work their last shift on Friday.

As of Thursday, Peluso reports that 18 businesses have reached out to offer employment to Mondelez workers, and Northjersey.com reports that the company hosted a job fair and resume workshop in June.

Though locals are planning for life after the plant closes, questions remain about why the decision was made.

In February, Gov. Phil Murphy bristled at the fact that hundreds of union-represented workers would be losing their jobs.

"Not happy about this whatsoever, and I don't like the way they're doing it," he said.

In April, U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. penned a letter to Mondelez CEO Dirk Van de Put, seeking "further details concerning Mondelez's policy of paying workers in Mexico low wages and how it may relate to the elimination of United States jobs."

The company said in November 2020 that it wouldn't outsource jobs to Mexico, but that did little to quell the suspicion.

Mondelez officials said the site in Fair Lawn, and another in Atlanta also set to close, were no longer considered "strategic assets from a geographic footprint perspective." More than that, the facilities are outdated.

The Fair Lawn facility opened in 1958 and, the company said, faces operational challenges due to aging infrastructure and lagging production capabilities. Rather than spend the "significant" investment to update these facilities, the company believes resources are better spent elsewhere.

One site in Richmond, Virginia, will remain the East Coast hub of operations for the brand and will take over the Oreo production currently being done in Fair Lawn.

Another question that remains is what will happen to the property, valued at $29.3 million, according to Northjersey.com.

Mondelez officials said they are currently communicating with interested parties and that a number of them have submitted bids.

"The Real Estate process is underway related to the sale of the property. The team is working with those interested buyers who have submitted bids, and will be taking next steps to choose the buyer and proceed with the process in a timely manner," said Laurie Guzzinati, the Mondelez senior director of corporate and government affairs North America.

With no timetable coming into focus, Peluso and the borough will wait for a deal to be struck but are open to whatever business wants to operate in Fair Lawn.

"We look forward to welcoming a new business to our community when the time comes," he said.

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