“Heartbreaking” Factory Closure Abruptly Wipes out 96 Jobs as Pennsylvania Town Loses “Heart and Soul”

For nearly 80 years, the Snyder of Berlin plant was more than a snack-food factory in Berlin, Pennsylvania. It was part of the town’s daily rhythm – the kind of place where people knew someone who worked there, remembered the smell of chips in the air, or saw the Snyder name stitched into the community itself.

Now, the Somerset County plant is closing, and 96 workers are expected to be affected. (This is also just the latest of several painful layoffs to rock Pennsylvania over the last year.)

The closure is listed in Pennsylvania’s WARN notices under PA Potato Chip Manufacturing LLC, at 1313 Stadium Street in Berlin, with layoffs beginning February 13, 2026, and running through the end of the year. The state lists 96 affected employees and classifies the action as a closing.

Local reaction has been raw. WJAC spoke with community members after the news broke, including officials from the Berlin Brothersvalley School District, whose athletic complex bears the Snyder name. One official called the closure “heartbreaking for our community,” saying it was also worrisome to see a major local business leave town.

That’s the part of a plant closure that can be hard to capture in a spreadsheet. Yes, the number is 96 jobs. But in a borough like Berlin, a factory is not just a factory. It is paychecks, shift schedules, tax base, school pride, little-league sponsors, and memories passed down through families.

The plant’s roots go back to 1947, according to local reporting from the Altoona Mirror, which noted that the operation had been a longtime Somerset County potato-chip company before the planned shutdown.

WJAC also reported that community members described the factory as the “heart and soul of Berlin,” with one Berlin native remembering the smell of potato chips in the air and a father who had spent almost 50 years working there.

The Snyder of Berlin brand itself is expected to continue, according to reporting cited by Daily Voice, but the local plant — the place generations associated with the name — is the piece being lost.

For Berlin, that distinction may not soften the blow. A brand can live on a shelf somewhere else. A factory lives in a town.

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