Juanita’s Foods Bets on California After a Nationwide Plant Hunt

Juanita’s Foods bought a 120,000-square-foot Santa Fe Springs plant after a nationwide hunt, then took a city loan of up to $13.5 million to stay. The 80-year-old menudo and pozole canner will leave Wilmington and fold production into 13100 Arctic Circle. The shift is phased, and a date is not set.

Kansas and Texas had incentive packages of their own, city staff told the Santa Fe Springs council. Apex Capital, which bought control last spring, is guaranteeing the city loan. The building Juanita’s is taking over is still a tuna plant until November.

Kansas and Texas Were on the List

Chief operating officer Jody Jordan said the company ran an exhaustive nationwide search before it picked the next plant. Human resources SVP Anna De Leon, answering questions after the announcement, said the move itself had been planned for several years to grow capacity and protect supply. Those two statements can both be true: the need for more canning room was old, and the address was not locked.

Santa Fe Springs staff wrote that the company had to choose a site on a fast clock, and that other states, including Kansas and Texas, were offering their own packages. The Arctic Circle building had rail access, a shorter path to occupancy than rival sites, and a commute that could keep Wilmington people on the payroll. The new plant is about 15 miles from the old one.

We conducted an exhaustive nationwide search before deciding where Juanita’s Foods would build its next chapter. Ultimately, the combination of Santa Fe Springs’ business-friendly approach, the right facility and a competitive incentive package made staying in Southern California a no-brainer.

Jody Jordan, Chief Operating Officer, Juanita’s Foods

CEO Robert Rosales put the same choice in brand language. “For 80 years, Juanita’s has been made in Southern California, and this investment keeps it that way,” he said on Sept. 16, 2026, when the company announced the purchase. Financial terms of the real-estate deal were not disclosed.

Santa Fe Springs Put $13.5 Million on the Table

The city council approved a loan of up to $13.5 million on Aug. 18, 2026, for relocation and equipment. The loan is not amortized. Juanita’s will make interest-only payments each quarter, then pay the principal at the end, at the Local Agency Investment Fund rate the state treasurer publishes. Apex Capital signed an equity commitment letter and a guarantee. Staff told the council there is no expected net hit to the city because that rate is the city’s own cost of money.

A separate package approved on Sept. 1, 2026, is the part that spends cash: about $1.5 million in direct incentives. That splits into a permit-fee waiver of up to $500,000, a $500,000 relocation payment, and a $500,000 training and retention payment. Juanita’s, in turn, will pay $200,000 a year for five years into the city’s Community Benefit Fund, $1 million in all. On Sept. 10 the council had to amend the loan papers after Juanita’s brought in another lender and the city had to step behind that new money.

THE SANTA FE SPRINGS PACKAGE

Staff put Phase I at $60 million to $70 million, counting the purchase, the equipment, and the buildout. A Phase II warehouse of about 50,000 square feet is planned at a second site inside the city. Capacity numbers for the cannery itself are still open. De Leon said the new plant gives “significant room to grow production,” then added that capacity planning is still underway.

The Plant Bumble Bee Is Leaving

The address on the Juanita’s announcement is the same one on Bumble Bee Foods’ California WARN filing: 13100 Arctic Circle, Santa Fe Springs, CA 90670. Bumble Bee has been running tuna there. On Aug. 11, 2026, it told the state it would cut 197 jobs effective Nov. 19, 2026. A further group of about 36 people is slated to go when the seafood line winds down, a close Bumble Bee has aimed at March 2027. The company has already cut 56 jobs at the same plant, with those layoffs dated Dec. 18, 2025. The two WARN notices cover 253 positions.

Arielle Schechtman, a Bumble Bee spokesperson, said the shutdown is part of an effort to streamline the supply chain “by reducing the number of processing points in the value stream.” Bumble Bee is owned by Taiwanese seafood firm FCF. Juanita’s has not said whether any of those tuna workers will be offered cannery jobs.

THE CLOCK ON ARCTIC CIRCLE

1. Dec. 18, 2025: Bumble Bee cuts 56 jobs at 13100 Arctic Circle.
2. Aug. 11, 2026: Bumble Bee files a WARN notice for 197 jobs, effective Nov. 19, 2026.
3. Aug. 18, 2026: Santa Fe Springs approves the $13.5 million loan to Juanita’s.
4. Sept. 1, 2026: The council adds the $1.5 million incentive package.
5. Sept. 16, 2026: Juanita’s announces it has acquired the 120,000-square-foot plant.
6. Nov. 19, 2026: 197 Bumble Bee layoffs take effect.
7. March 2027: Bumble Bee’s target for finishing the wind-down, with about 36 more jobs gone.

Juanita’s called the Santa Fe Springs site its primary manufacturing home and said it will combine work now done in Wilmington into one larger operation. The transition is designed to protect supply for grocery and foodservice customers. Rosales thanked the city and “our team, whose craftsmanship built this brand and will carry it into this new facility.”

What Happens to the Wilmington Crew?

De Leon said Juanita’s plans to move its entire workforce to Santa Fe Springs and is working through arrangements for people who cannot relocate. The city staff report flags proximity as a reason the Arctic Circle site supports retention. Fifteen miles is a commute, not a transfer to Kansas. The $500,000 training and retention payment is written to the company, not as a worker-by-worker public stipend.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The Wilmington crew: Juanita’s says the whole workforce is slated to move, with separate arrangements for people who cannot go.
• The commute: City staff put the new plant about 15 miles from the old one and cited that distance as a retention point.
• The tuna crew: 197 Bumble Bee jobs end on Nov. 19, 2026, with about 36 more tied to a March 2027 close.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• Shared hiring: Juanita’s has not said whether it will interview Bumble Bee workers for cannery roles.
• The date: De Leon said the transition timeline has not been finalized.
• The output: No case count or line-speed figure has been released; De Leon said planning is still underway.

The old plant is a USDA-inspected meat and poultry site, listed as a small establishment, at 645 George De La Torre Jr. Avenue in Wilmington. The street carries the family name. Leaving it is the first time in 80 years the cans will be packed somewhere other than that harbor-side grid.

Grocers Keep Asking for More Cans

Juanita’s sells through grocery chains, club stores, and foodservice, and it calls itself the No. 1 brand of Mexican-style menudo and pozole in the United States. Lloyd Greif, chief executive of Greif & Co., the bank that represented the De La Torre family on the Apex sale, said the company held more than 95% of the canned menudo market and was growing at a double-digit pace. That is the demand the new floor space is supposed to feed.

The public face of the brand is still a yellow-and-red can. The company’s own kitchen pages list six varieties of canned menudo, including original, hot and spicy, honeycomb tripe, without corn, white sauce, and extra hot. Pozole comes in pork or chicken, with green or red chiles. Hominy is sold as a standalone staple. The rest of the shelf is albondigas, pork chile verde, nacho cheese sauce, and Pico Pica sauces, a line the company picked up in 1977.

WHAT IS IN THE CAN

• Menudo: Six recipes; the company calls itself the No. 1 menudo brand.
• Pozole and hominy: Pork or chicken pozole, plus Mexican-style hominy the company also ranks as No. 1.
• The rest of the bay: Albondigas, pork chile verde, nacho cheese, and Pico Pica sauces.

George De La Torre Sr. and his nephew Albert Guerrero founded the business in 1946 in Wilmington as Harbor Canning, packing fish. In 1950, at the suggestion of Albert’s wife, Ruth, they tried canning menudo. George Jr. dropped the fish lines after he took over in 1968. The company took the Juanita’s Foods name in 1986. The family recipe is still the pitch. Greif told buyers the cans tested as close to homemade.

Apex Put a New Chief in Fast

Apex Capital, a Miami private-equity firm tied to Guatemala’s Grupo Mariposa, took a majority stake in April 2025. The De La Torre family kept a significant interest and stayed in the business. Aaron De La Torre was chief executive on the day of that sale. By June 26, 2025, Robert Rosales was signing the press releases as CEO, a change inside two months. Pedro Palma, Apex’s managing partner, chairs the Juanita’s board. Grupo Mariposa is a food and drink group with more than 140 years of history and operations in 16 countries.

The hire list after the sale reads like a canning-company rebuild. Phil Brewer arrived in July 2025 as senior vice president of operations, with prior runs at Pinnacle Foods, Conagra Brands, and The Cheesecake Factory. Simon Stopol was named senior vice president of transformation. A chief customer officer and a chief financial officer followed the same summer. De Leon said the Santa Fe Springs move supports “long-term growth in capacity and ensuring continuity of supply.” Palma called the plant a permanent manufacturing home in Southern California.

This investment reflects our conviction in the Juanita’s brand and our long-term commitment to building the capabilities required to support its growth. Securing a permanent manufacturing home in Southern California is an important investment in the company’s future, its employees and the customers it serves.

Pedro Palma, Managing Partner, Apex Capital, and Chairman, Juanita’s Foods

Greif described the 2025 sale as estate planning for a third-generation family. Apex did not move the work out of California then, and Palma is now putting a guarantee behind a city loan that keeps it here. The bet is that a heritage Hispanic brand with a near-lock on canned menudo is worth California costs if the floor space finally matches the orders.

Four Cities Stopped Fighting Over the Same Factory

Commerce, the City of Industry, Santa Fe Springs, and Vernon formed the BIG 4 in October 2025 so they would stop bidding against one another for the same industrial employers. Together they count about 250 million square feet of industrial space, more than 5,000 businesses, a workforce of about 200,000, and roughly $33 billion in industrial output. Juanita’s is the first closed deal the alliance can point to.

City manager Rene Bobadilla said the four cities aligned resources and moved faster than they could have as rivals. “This is what becomes possible when cities stop looking at economic development as a competition and start looking at it as a regional opportunity,” he said. The stay still had a price: the loan, the fee waiver, the two $500,000 checks. The loan is designed to come back with interest. The $1.5 million is the public spend.

California had to put money on the table, and the company said that package is what made staying a no-brainer. Wilmington loses the cannery that has carried the family name since 1946. Santa Fe Springs gains a menudo line in a building that is still, for a few more weeks, a tuna plant. The Wilmington cannery sits at 645 George De La Torre Jr. Avenue. Bumble Bee’s 197 layoffs take effect on Nov. 19, 2026. Juanita’s has not set a date for the first menudo run on Arctic Circle.