Amoroso closing old Philadelphia bakery, moving operation to New Jersey

It's official: Amoroso's Baking Co. will close its longtime Southwest Philadelphia bakery this fall and make bread and rolls at a new plant in Bellmawr, the company told employees starting with the production shift Wednesday night.

About 200 employees will be laid off. The layoffs will start Oct. 6, with the closure expected no later than Dec. 4, the company said.

"It's a sad thing," said Hank McKay, president of Local 6 of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union, which represents many Amoroso's employees. "We knew that it was coming. They were moving to a bigger facility."

Leonard Amoroso Jr., president and co-owner of Amoroso's, which was founded in 1904 in Camden, was not available for comment, a spokeswoman said Thursday.

The new bakery, in an industrial park near where Interstate 295 intersects with Route 42, is a joint venture with the owners of Ginsburg Bakery Inc., which announced in April that it was closing its Atlantic City operation and laying off 159 workers.

The owners of Ginsburg Bakery, the Mulloy family, are already partners with the Amoroso family in a contract bakery in Vineland that makes rolls for Wawa convenience stores and others.

The new venture, 151 Foods L.L.C., received a $20.7 million tax credit, spread over 10 years, to help pay for the New Jersey bakery, which involves total capital investment of $33.1 million, according to the New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

The 2012 application for those tax credits under the Grow New Jersey Assistance Program said the new bakery would help retain 205 jobs in New Jersey and add 140.

151 Foods, which bought its building for $4.94 million from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Co. in 2013, also considered a site in Morrisville.

The creation of a new legal entity triggered the layoff notices by Ginsburg and Amoroso's under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, requiring a 60-day notice in the case of plant closings and certain other layoffs.

Amoroso's told Philadelphia employees they could apply for jobs in Bellmawr.

McKay, the union president, said many of the Amoroso's employees don't drive. "They take public transit. That will be a hindrance for them to be able to get over to this new plant in Jersey," he said.