Major food company shuts down longtime factory, eliminating nearly 100 jobs

A longtime tortilla factory in Colorado is shutting down, bringing an end to decades of food manufacturing in the Pueblo community. The closure affects 90 employees, including some who have spent more than 40 years working at the facility.

Mission Foods plant closes

Mission Foods is permanently closing its Pueblo, Colorado, manufacturing facility on October 13, 2026, after production at the plant stopped on August 14. The company files a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, with the state saying all 90 employees at the facility are affected. 

The plant, located on Santa Fe Drive, has been part of Mission Foods’ operations since the company acquires locally owned Candy’s Tortillas in 1994. The facility itself dates back to the 1950s, when Candelario “Candy” Estrada and Cedelia “Sadie” Estrada begin producing tortillas for local customers. 

The shutdown shocks employees and their union. United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 says workers were called to a plant-wide meeting on August 14 and told production was ending immediately. Some employees have worked at the facility for more than four decades. 

90 workers are affected

Although manufacturing stopped in August, employees continue receiving pay and benefits through the official closure date in October. The first layoffs are scheduled for October 13, with all employee separations expected to be completed by October 27. 

Some unionized employees have the ability to displace more junior workers at Mission Foods distribution centers in Pueblo or Aurora, potentially allowing them to remain with the company. Nonunion employees do not have the same bumping rights. 

Mission Foods does not provide a specific reason for the closure, saying only that it has made the “difficult decision” to close the facility and that it is supporting affected workers as they transition to their next careers. 

For Pueblo, the closure represents the loss of a longtime food-production operation and dozens of manufacturing jobs, while ending a tortilla-making legacy that stretches back nearly seven decades.

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