COST REDUCTIONS IN OPERATIONS
April 8, 2005
Cal/West Seeds will be suspending operations at our Tranquillity, California plant effective May 31, 2005. New crop non-dormant alfalfa seed produced by members in the region will be shipped to the Company’s Othello, Washington plant for conditioning and distribution. Current inventory warehoused in Tranquillity will be relocated to the company’s Artois, California plant for bagging and distribution.
Current full-time employees will be offered jobs at one of the company’s other three plants located in Galt, California, Artois California or Othello Washington. These plants have sufficient capacity to handle the volume of seed that Tranquillity is currently conditioning. The recent addition of automated palletizing equipment at the Artois, Ca facility has yielded a significant improvement in both capacity and efficiency. These adjustments are expected to save the company a significant amount of operating expense going forward.
Cal/West Seeds will continue to contract production of non-dormant alfalfa seed in the central California area. Likewise we will continue to aggressively develop and market non-dormant alfalfa seed worldwide. Should conditions warrant, the facility could be re-opened at a future date. In the short term we will consider renting or leasing the facility for warehousing and perhaps processing of other agricultural commodities grown in the area.
We are confident that these changes will improve our operating efficiency without compromising our capacity to make on-time deliveries of high quality seed to our customers around the world.