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Letter confirms General M"Is Lodi plant closure - News - ree—inet.com - ... Page 1 of 1 Letter confirms General Mills Lodi plant closure 1013 Recommend 15 0 By Reed Fujii Record Staff Writer Posted Nov. 13,2014 @ 7:15 pm General Mills has cemented plans to close its Lodi plant with a recent letter to city officials detailing four rounds of layoffs of more than 400 employees. The consumer foods and cereal producer rocked the community in September,saying it had made a"preliminary decision"to close the manufacturing and distribution facility at 2000 W.Turner Road. Now a Nov. 5 letter to the city seems to make the decision final,saying the plant will shut down and adding:"The closing will be permanent." An attached schedule said the first layoffs,of two positions,will come in early January.The bulk of the job cuts will occur in September,with 122 layoffs,and November,when 282 workers are to be let go.A final round of seven layoffs in January 2016 will complete the plant closure. Losing more than 400 good-paying manufacturing jobs is a blow,but community officials have time to find a new user for the cereal plant and property,said Michael Ammann,executive director of the San Joaquin Partnership,a regional economic development agency. "Now we need to move forward and create a vision that will re-create the prosperity that we had for some 66 years with General Mills,"he said Thursday. "We've been working on this and we'll continue as it unfolds." Ammann said he's met city officials and other Lodi community and business leaders in weighing what the future may bring. One opportunity might be to find another food processing operation,a"compatible use,"that could reopen the existing plant with minimal modifications. Beyond that might be any number of renovation and redevelopment possibilities,Ammann said. Perhaps it could become a food processing business park,with a number of smaller businesses taking advantage of the site's existing infrastructure,he said.Another might be a mix of vertically integrated wine-industry operations,from wine making and wine storage,to packaging and supplies. General Mills certainly has every incentive to find a buyer for the 66-acre property,wanting to get a nonoperational asset off its books,Ammann said. The plant,located on 66 acres south of Turner Road at Lower Sacramento Road,opened in 1948. Contact reporter Reed Fujii at(209)546-8253 or rfujii@recordnet.com.Follow him on Twitter @ReedBiznews. http://www.recordnet.com/article/20141113/NEWS/141119743/3329/FRO... 11/17/2014