A Kitchener cookie maker has closed its doors, leaving nearly 400 workers in limbo.
Not long ago, Colonial Cookies was running at full speed and producing confectionaries for many private labels such as President's Choice. But now, Colonial Cookies sits idle as the U.S. financial group that owns the company looks for a buyer.
For employees such as April Wood, the closure comes as a shock, "We were working six day mandatory work weeks until the end of September. So I really didn't see this coming."
The business had reportedly suffered serious losses in the past year. Workers thought there might be some seasonal layoffs, but it's much worse.
Wood says "We expected lower seniority would get laid off as usual. But the rest of us would go back and by April we'd be busy again."
She and other workers at the factory expected to be back in January after the Christmas shutdown, but the start up was delayed. Few people remained in the plant and now even the maintenance workers have left, which Wood considers "an omen".
The ovens at the factory are switched off and most of the stock has been moved out of the warehouse, but Kitchener Councillor Kelly Galloway remains optimistic that the factory could be back in business eventually.
"We can do something to try and help and make sure that we can keep them employed in the community, I think we have to do everything we can to make sure that they are," says Galloway.
Like Wood, some of the workers have been there for over 15 years, many of them single parents or families with both spouses employed at the factory. "Things look pretty bleak to me," she says, "I hope to go back, but 21 years is a long time to have nothing left."
Although sources have confirmed there are interested buyers for the business, there is concern about how committed they are and how soon they would be willing to get the cookie factory back in business.
