No Longer Full of Bologna

On a business trip to beautiful Madison, Wis. last week I learned that Kraft-Heinz Foods is shutting down Oscar Mayer’s massive headquarters and manufacturing plant in the capital city where it has operated for close to 100 years.

Driving into town from Dane County Regional Airport the Oscar Mayer campus is one of the first sites you see, with its 10-story red brick office tower and the acres of manufacturing plants stretching behind it. Kraft-Heinz is moving the headquarters to Chicago while manufacturing is going to a new plant being built somewhere in Iowa, where apparently costs are cheaper.

While in town I took the opportunity to drive out to the Oscar Mayer plant and snoop around. As I walked around I learned about the history and what makes this factory site so special. The original Oscar Mayer Weinermobile sits on a circular pad on a grassy knoll shaded by an elm tree to the left of the front entrance.

Nearby, water shoots from a large circular fountain where a bronze plaque notes that it was built in memory of Oscar F. Mayer 1859 –1955 “Pioneer American Meat Processor and Warm-Hearted Friend” and dedicated to “the men and women of Oscar Mayer & Co. that are carrying forward the honorable traditions of the business he founded.”

Another plaque alerts passersby that the neighboring flag plaza is dedicated to Adolph C. Bolz (1893-1968) the “first manager of the Madison plant of Oscar Mayer & Co. whole devoted and tireless service for nearly fifty years won him the respect, admiration and affection of all of his fellow workers.”

That’s all gone now—or at least it will be come March. I am sure the plant closing will not have a major impact on Madison’s economy, after all the city is the state capital and home of the University of Wisconsin and scores of new office buildings and apartment towers are rising up on the outskirts of downtown.

I wonder what will become of the plant. My guess is that it will sit vacant for several years, be declared an eyesore, torn down and replaced with a Walmart Supercenter/Sam’s Club shopping center. Then local politicians will tout the hundreds of low-wage jobs created.

A better idea would be for Kraft-Heinz to donate the site to the city and have the city turn it into a business campus incubator for fledging food firms. Who knows? One of those entrepreneurs might be the next Oscar Mayer.