Dozens of workers in Southern Nevada are losing their jobs next month with the closure of a food-manufacturing plant that opened more than a decade ago.
Snack-maker Our Home recently told state officials that it will permanently close its facility in the northeast Las Vegas Valley on Aug. 25, resulting in the layoff of 61 employees.
Its holdings include the RW Garcia brand of crackers and corn chips. Clark County records show this business holds the license for the soon-to-close facility at 4780 N. Lamb Blvd., at Lone Mountain Road.
Our Home did not provide a reason for the shutdown in its letter dated June 26 to the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation, nor did it mention RW Garcia.
New Jersey-based Our Home, led by founder Aaron Greenwald, told the department that no union representation of the affected workers is involved and that no “bumping rights” exist, referring to a policy that, in general, lets longer-serving employees replace less-tenured workers when management sheds staff.
The company did not respond to requests for comment.
Its other brands include Pop Secret popcorn and Popchips.
In 2014, RW Garcia, then a family-owned business from San Jose, California, opened its 63,000-square-foot manufacturing plant on Lamb Boulevard. The new facility allowed its production rate to jump from 11 million pounds of chips per year to more than 62 million annually, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
The company announced in 2017 that it added a new manufacturing line at the Las Vegas facility and that it opened a warehouse a few miles away for product distribution.
“Las Vegas has been a great place for RW Garcia’s manufacturing and we look forward to continued growth in the future,” said Genelle Chetcuti, then-senior director of marketing, in a news release.
In 2021, Utz Brands purchased RW Garcia for $56 million, saying the tortilla-chip maker had significant production capacity with plants in Nevada and North Carolina.
Then, in 2024, Our Home reached a deal to acquire the RW Garcia brand and assume Utz’s lease and manufacturing operations in Las Vegas as part of a $182.5 million deal.
Las Vegas’ casino-heavy economy is fueled by tourism, and officials have long sought to diversify the employer base to help the region — which has a track record of booms and busts — better withstand economic downturns.
Overall, 303,900 people worked in leisure and hospitality in the Las Vegas area as of May, accounting for nearly 26 percent of all employees, according to federal data.
By comparison, 30,400 people were employed in manufacturing, comprising just 2.6 percent of the total workforce.
Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342.
