Jessup is losing its Lancaster Foods LLC plant and potentially more than 400 jobs as the wholesale produce company shared its closure with the Maryland Department of Labor this week.

According to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN notice, Lancaster Foods is set to close on Dec. 14, affecting 424 employees. The WARN Act is a federal law requiring employers with at least 100 employees to notify their workers of a plant closing or mass layoff at least 60 days in advance.

The last time more than 400 employees were affected by a plant closure in Howard County was in February 2023, when Freshly closed after the company shut down. A total of 454 employees at the Savage warehouse location were affected, according to the Maryland Department of Labor’s WARN log.

Howard County Councilmember Christiana Rigby, who represents the district where the plant is located, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Lancaster Foods was acquired in 2020 by Laurel-based The Coastal Companies. In 2022, Sysco announced its acquisition of The Coastal Companies to operate under the company’s FreshPoint specialty produce business.

Lancaster Foods directed questions to its corporate offices of The Coastal Companies, which did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Founded in Pennsylvania by brothers John and Dave Gates, who had an entrepreneurial mindset in high school, the company moved operations to Frederick and later Jessup, “the heart of the Maryland Produce Zone,” according to the website. The company settled into its current “state-of-the-art” 220,000-square-foot processing and distribution facility in 2008 and had around 700 employees.

“As an independent wholesaler, our number one goal is – it says it right on our truck – ‘Best Quality, Fastest Service’ – which is our tagline. I do get involved in every facet of the business, but I am especially passionate about quality. My idea of quality may be different from others,” John Gates said in a 2016 Q&A published on Lancaster Food’s website.

Lancaster Foods offered wholesale fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as fresh-cut products, specialty produce services and locally grown produce, which was an emphasis when the brothers founded the company in 1986, according to the website. Because of the company’s location, it was able to provide next-day or same-day delivery for many of its customers on the East Coast, delivering from Maine to Florida.

The toughest challenge for the company was finding labor, John Gates said in the 2016 Q&A, with seven days a week of operations and a cold work environment due to the refrigeration. He said he was proud of the company’s labor force in the interview eight years ago, also saying he felt “pretty good about our position in the marketplace” at the time.

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