Big North American Baking Company to Close Kent, WA Facility–Drop 120 Jobs

First, Fisher Investments shifted their headquarters and bulk of operations from WA state to Texas in 2023. Hundreds of workers left Camas, WA.  Then utility provider Pacific Corp announced this year they're selling their WA operations to PGE, but keeping the rest of their operations in OR, Utah, Idaho, and other states.. And now, this.

   Major North American Baker to Close Plant in Kent WA

When you've been doing this long enough, you can recognize corporate-speak, and understand growing numbers of major company executives now view WA state as business "unfriendly."

A WARN Alert from Employment Security indicates by the end of August,  120 jobs will go away as Rise Baking, based out of Minnesota, closes their long-time Kent operations plant by the end of August.

The company also announced via the website JustFood.com and other sources, they're expanding their Pleasant View Utah factory, and will add 170 jobs there.

 Rise Supplies Hundreds of Hotels, Motels and Stores with Baked Goods

If you eat cakes, pies, cookies or other baked goods while traveling, and even in many stores, you've probably had some of their products. They also supply icing for decorating to thousands of clients.  This is their plant in Kent.

According to company officials, when you consider the business and tax environment in WA the last five to six years, it's clear they are not keen on WA.  According to JustFood, Rise Officials said the move will help with:

“streamlining its footprint” to better align with customer demand. Additionally, it will support growth across multiple product categories, including “increased pie production”.

When coupled with the vast expansion of the Utah facility, and 170 more jobs, that's a fancy way of saying they're pulling the ripchord on WA before things get too expensive.

 WA Has the Lowest New Snall Business Survival Rate in the US

It's not just mega companies either. Several national business publications have done surveys showing WA state's new small business survival rate is just over 59 percent, by far the worst in the nation.

Rise said Kent workers will be given severence packages based upon length of service to the company.