Tastykake combines lines, cuts jobs in shift to Navy Yard
"The utimate earnings power of the bakery" should be clear next year
Tasty Baking is ahead of schedule in turning its 15 baking lines at its old Hunting Park Ave. bakery in North Philadelphia into seven more-automated lines at its new Navy Yard plant in South Philly, which means the transition could be complete by April instead of June, reports Janney Capital Markets analyst Mitchell B. Pinheiro in a report today.
Cupcakes, cookie bars and pies are now baking downtown, with other lines scheduled to move in the weeks after New Year's. The transition to fewer production lines means Tasty needs fewer workers. ADD: "Tasty's original estimate called for a headcount reduction of 215 or about 40% of the Hunting Park workforce," Pinheiro reminded me in an e-mail.
In his report, Pinheiro told clients that the "ultimate earnings power of the new bakery" should be clear by late next year. That translates into job cuts, also "new product capabilities:" We hope that means something our doctors let us eat, and maybe more Tastykake jobs down the road, to repay the private and public investment.