CASCADE of CEREAL
General Mills shows off its production facility in ABQ
Multibillion-dollar food company General Mills opened the doors of its Albuquerque plant to local media on Monday, the first such event in years at the manufacturing facility.
The media tour was part of a promotion for Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal. A spokesman said Cinnamon Toast Crunch is the third most-popular cereal in the U.S., behind Honey Nut Cheerios and “another (cereal) we won’t name because it’s made by a different company.”
The 500,000-square-foot Albuquerque plant was built in 1992, and has about 350 employees.
Media were led on a tour of the Cinnamon Toast Crunch production line, including the areas where the cereal is baked, seasoned and packaged.
Plant manager Becky Prescott said the Albuquerque operation has expanded rapidly over the past few years, in part to increased demand for three products: Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Reese’s Puffs and Golden Grahams.
“The more diverse portfolio of products we have here, the better off we are in the long term,” said Prescott.
The expansion has also been aided by industrial revenue bonds, a financing mechanism that provides an organization with a property tax abatement. General Mills received an $80 million IRB from Bernalillo County in 2016, which allows it to pay about $157,000 annually to the county in lieu of property taxes, according to a 2017 county financial report.
Asked if the plant’s workers were unionized, Prescott said they are not.
“We prefer to work directly with our employees,” she said.