Fresh Express to close; 40 employees effected
By PAT FRIDGEN Echo Pilot

The Fresh Express business on Commerce Avenue that began as a processing plant and has since become a distribution facility will close by March 2008. the inset shows a sign on the east side.

The 40 employees at Fresh Express, 104 Commerce Ave., will soon be losing their jobs.

The company is closing its doors in Greencastle. Currently owned by Chiquita Brands International, the facility is a distribution center. Media relations spokesman Michael Mitchell said in a news release the closure will be complete by March 2008. The company announced Monday it was cutting 160 management jobs worldwide and closing several facilities in order to save $60-$80 million a year.

A spokesman at the Greencastle office would not release information on when the local employees were notified.

Mike Ross, president of Franklin County Area Development Corporation, heard the news from the same press release. He said because Fresh Express employs fewer than 50 people, it did not have to abide by the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN).

Under WARN, the employees, community, county and state are notified within 60 days of a mass layoff or closing. "It's to brace the community," said Ross.

Gary Gembe, president of the Greencastle-Antrim Area Development Corporation, was not aware of the closing. He was optimistic for the displaced workers.

"The unemployment rate here is one of the lowest in Pennsylvania now," he said. "They'll get absorbed somewhere."

Moving out

Mitchell said the Greencastle distribution center will move to Harrisburg, where the company purchased a farm. The local employees will be able to apply for some of those jobs at Verdelli Farms, or will be offered severance packages.

Chiquita is also closing a plant in Carrollton, Ga., with a workforce of 240. According to its website, it has at least 25 facilities across the United States. The company, in operation for 80 years, creates ready-to-eat salads, spinach and vegetables.

In the past, the company had hundreds of employees in Greencastle, according to Ross and Gembe. The processing work is gone and the downsized firm shifted to distribution, they said.

"Since Fresh Express was acquired by Chiquita, we don't have the same relationship as previously," said Ross. "We contacted them to sit down in a meeting, but that didn't pan out."

He said the FCADC would assist the employees by directing them to dislocated worker services through the Department of Labor and Industry. It will also try to help find another company to use the building, which he believes Chiquita owns.