Modesto’s Yosemite Meat Co. looks to Stockton for new home, expansion plans
A longtime Modesto pork processor and meat distributor plans to relocate and expand its operations about 30 minutes away in Stockton early next year.
But a Yosemite Meat Co. official said the company is not leaving Modesto.
Treasurer Michael Lau said the family-owned company plans to modernize its Modesto facility on Zeff Road and look at business opportunities for that facility.
“It will be back up and operational,” Lau said in a Monday phone interview, though he said it was too soon to give a time line. “Our policy is to expand and employ more people.”
Lau said the 188 employees at the Zeff Road facility have been offered the same jobs at the same pay and benefits at the Stockton facility. “We are not letting anyone go,” he said.
Yosemite Meat was required to notify the state through the provisions of the state and federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification acts.
The company’s Nov. 20 WARN letter states it plans on closing its Zeff Road plant Jan. 31 and open the Stockton plant “on or about February 1,” though Lau said Monday the transition now is expected to take place in early spring.
The letter said Yosemite Meat did not anticipate its workers would have any breaks in their employment as the company relocates to Stockton.
Yosemite Meat Co. also is changing its name to Yosemite Foods Inc., according to the WARN letter.
Yosemite Meat has looked for several years at expanding its business and has considered locations in Utah, Turlock and Modesto. Lau said the company has expanded about three times at its Zeff Road plant and has no more room to grow.
He declined to provide details about the new Stockton facility other than it is larger and more modern than the Zeff Road facility. He said Yosemite Meat bought the Stockton facility and is converting it to meet the demands of its business.
Lau said the company will provide more details once it gets closer to opening. He said Stockton and San Joaquin County are not providing Yosemite Meat with any incentives for relocating.
Yosemite Meat supplies pork, beef, poultry and lamb to supermarkets, restaurants and meat processors, with most of its business in Sacramento, the Bay Area and Los Angeles.
Lau’s parents, John and Gay, started the business on Yosemite Boulevard in 1981. It moved to Zeff Road in south Modesto in the early 1990s.
Modesto spokesman Thomas Reeves declined to comment Monday.
“It’s my understanding that the city has not been officially told anything from (Yosemite Meat) so it wouldn’t be prudent for us to respond,” he wrote in a text message.
This story was originally published December 17, 2018 at 5:04 PM.
