FreshRealm Inc., a Lancaster, Texas-based food-production company that was involved in a major recall of products this year due to a deadly outbreak of listeria infections, plans to permanently close its Indianapolis plant early next year, ending employment for all 168 workers at the facility.
The company announced the closure this week in a public notice to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development.
The notice said the plant at 3120 Post Road, on the city’s east side, will remain operational until Jan. 31, at which time 148 employees will be terminated. The remaining 20 employees will be retained until the final closure on March 20. FreshRealm said employees who remain with the company until their closure dates will be eligible for severance pay.
“We made the business decision to close our Indianapolis, Indiana facility,” the company said in an emailed response to questions from IBJ. “After careful review, we determined that streamlining operations to other FreshRealm facilities will allow us to meet demand for our products more efficiently.”
The Indianapolis facility, which opened in 2021, was involved in making products that were recalled this year that were linked to a deadly listeria outbreak and potential contamination of dozens of products sold at grocery stores nationwide. The outbreak, which involved more than a dozen states, killed four people and sickened at least 20.
The recalled products made by FreshRealm included heat-and-eat chicken fettucine and meatball linguine sold under the Marketside brand name at Walmart and chicken fettucine sold at Kroger under the brand name Home Chef.
The source of the listeria was ultimately traced to precooked pasta made by Nate’s Fine Foods of Roseville, California, which was supplied to FreshRealm and several other companies that make heat-and-eat meals and pasta salads for multiple retailers. Nate’s recalled 245,000 pounds of the pasta in September after FreshRealm used genetic sequencing to confirm the source of the outbreak.
Founded in California in 2013, FreshRealm acquired Blue Apron for $50 million in 2023 and Marley Spoon for $24 million in 2024. It moved its headquarters to Texas in 2024.
“We are grateful to all Indianapolis-based employees for their contributions to FreshRealm and our customers,” the company said in its email. “We are focused on making this transition as smooth as possible for impacted employees. We are managing the transition in meal production to our other facilities and do not anticipate any service disruption for our customers as a result of the Indianapolis closure.”
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