Juanita’s Foods Moves Menudo Into a Closing Tuna Plant

Juanita’s Foods bought a 120,000-square-foot plant in Santa Fe Springs, California, and will move production there from Wilmington. The building at 13100 Arctic Circle is the tuna plant Bumble Bee Foods is shutting down.

Private-equity firm Apex Capital took control in 2025, then spent 16 months putting a new chief executive, a city incentive package, and this factory under the 80-year-old menudo brand. Bumble Bee’s crew is already on a layoff clock. Juanita’s still has no move date.

Juanita’s Foods Bought the Plant on Arctic Circle

On Sept. 16, 2026, the company said it had acquired a 120,000 sq ft manufacturing facility at 13100 Arctic Circle. The Santa Fe Springs site will become the primary manufacturing home, folding work now done at the longtime Wilmington plant into one operation after a phased switch.

Juanita’s, which calls itself the No. 1 brand of Mexican-style menudo and pozole in the United States, did not disclose a price. Chief Executive Officer Robert Rosales tied the purchase to staying put. “For 80 years, Juanita’s has been made in Southern California, and this investment keeps it that way,” he said. “Santa Fe Springs gives us the capacity, capabilities and room to grow that our brand needs for its next chapter.”

The company listed three things the deal is supposed to deliver: more room for menudo, pozole, and hominy; a staged handoff meant to protect retail and foodservice orders; and continued work in the Los Angeles-area food plants. Headquarters, in the same announcement, remains Wilmington. Production is what is leaving the harbor city, not the letterhead.

Bumble Bee’s 197 Layoffs Are Already on the Calendar

Juanita’s release never named the seller. The street address does. Bumble Bee Foods told the state it will permanently lay off 197 employees at its facility at 13100 Arctic Circle, Santa Fe Springs, CA 90670, with the cuts effective Nov. 19, 2026. The notice was filed Aug. 11, 2026.

Bumble Bee said it made the “difficult decision” to wind down the Santa Fe Springs tuna plant in phases through March 2027, eliminating more than 230 jobs in the full close. “This decision is part of an effort to streamline our supply chain and production network by reducing the number of processing points in the value stream,” the company said. A separate notice had already covered 56 workers at the same address, with those jobs ending Dec. 18, 2025, bringing the two filings to 253 positions.

TWO PLANTS, ONE ADDRESS

The November figure is the layoff on the WARN form. The “more than 230” figure is Bumble Bee’s count for the whole shutdown. Juanita’s has not said how the two calendars will overlap inside the same walls, or whether any tuna workers will be offered menudo work.

A Nationwide Search Almost Took Menudo Out of California

Anna De León, Juanita’s senior vice president of human resources, said the company had planned the move for several years, to grow capacity and keep orders flowing. That planning predates the Apex sale. What followed the sale was a site hunt that was not limited to Los Angeles County.

Jody Jordan, chief operating officer, said the company looked across the country before it signed in Santa Fe Springs.

We conducted an exhaustive nationwide search before deciding where Juanita’s Foods would build its next chapter. Ultimately, the combination of Santa Fe Springs’ business-friendly approach, the right facility and a competitive incentive package made staying in Southern California a no-brainer. It allowed us to remain where Juanita’s was founded while continuing to invest in our people and our future.

Jody Jordan, Chief Operating Officer, Juanita’s Foods

On Sept. 17, 2026, the BIG 4 alliance of Commerce, City of Industry, Santa Fe Springs, and Vernon called Juanita’s the first company it had worked with directly, and its first finished deal. The four cities had spent years competing for the same industrial tenants. In October 2025 they signed a pact to chase investment as one bloc, then put a Santa Fe Springs incentive agreement plus shared fast-track permitting and relocation tools behind this plant.

René Bobadilla, city manager of Santa Fe Springs, said the cities could “align resources, move with greater speed, and give Juanita’s Foods a clear path to invest and grow here in the region.” He also thanked the brand for keeping money in Southern California. The exhaustive nationwide search is the line that makes the incentive package intelligible: California had to bid against other states to keep a cannery that started in Wilmington in 1946.

What Apex Capital Changed in 16 Months

On April 28, 2025, Apex Capital, a consumer-focused private-equity firm, announced it had bought a majority stake in Juanita’s Foods. The De La Torre family, which founded the company and had run it for three generations, kept a significant ownership interest and said it would stay involved. Financial terms were not disclosed then either.

Lloyd Greif, chief executive of Greif & Co., the downtown Los Angeles bank that represented the family, said the sale was part of the De La Torres’ estate planning. Apex, he said at the time, planned to keep manufacturing in California. Pedro Palma, Apex’s managing partner, called Juanita’s a fit for a strategy of “nurturing heritage Hispanic brands with high growth potential.” Apex is affiliated with Grupo Mariposa, a food and drink group that cites more than 140 years of history and operations in 16 countries. Palma now chairs the Juanita’s board.

Aaron De La Torre was chief executive on the day of that sale. By June 9, 2025, company materials were already quoting Robert Rosales, CEO of Juanita’s Foods, as he welcomed two new directors, Michael Tracy and Troy Treangen. The plant announcement 16 months after the buyout is Palma’s first large physical marker on the brand.

THE 16 MONTHS AFTER THE SALE

1. April 28, 2025: Apex Capital takes a majority stake; the De La Torre family keeps a significant interest; Aaron De La Torre speaks as CEO.
2. June 9, 2025: Juanita’s names Tracy and Treangen to the board, with Rosales quoted as chief executive.
3. June 26, 2025: The company names Simon Stopol senior vice president of transformation, a new post.
4. August 11, 2025: Chris Pudenz is named chief financial officer.
5. October 2025: Commerce, Industry, Santa Fe Springs, and Vernon formalize the BIG 4 pact.
6. October 14, 2025: Jim Donzelli is named vice president of sales.
7. August 11, 2026: Bumble Bee files the 197-person WARN notice for 13100 Arctic Circle.
8. September 16, 2026: Juanita’s announces it has bought the Santa Fe Springs plant.

Palma said the factory purchase “reflects our conviction in the Juanita’s brand and our long-term commitment to building the capabilities required to support its growth.” He also called a permanent Southern California manufacturing home “an important investment in the company’s future, its employees and the customers it serves.” The conviction is now a concrete building that another food company is leaving.

Wilmington Made Menudo a Grocery Aisle Staple

George De La Torre Sr. and his nephew Albert Guerrero opened Harbor Canning Co. in Wilmington in 1946, packing fish after the war. Around 1950, Guerrero’s wife, Ruth, pushed them to can menudo, the tripe-and-hominy soup that was then a weekend pot, not a shelf item. They picked the name Juanita from a book of names. George De La Torre Jr. later dropped fish and bet the plant on that soup.

The company still sells that core and a wider shelf-stable Mexican line: pozole, hominy, albóndigas, chile verde, nacho cheese, and Pico Pica sauces. Products go through grocery retailers, club stores, and foodservice. Juanita’s own family history page says many workers have stayed more than 45 years, and that the menudo and hominy lines are No. 1 in the United States. Wilmington spent decades calling itself a menudo capital because so much of the canned product started there.

WHAT STAYS ON THE LINE

• Flagship soups: Menudo and pozole, the two items the company now leads with in its plant notice.
• Hominy: Sold on its own and packed into the soups, listed with the core growth set for Santa Fe Springs.
• Other cans: Albondigas, chile verde, and nacho cheese remain in the mix the Apex deal described in 2025.
• Pico Pica: The sauce brand the family added years ago, still under the same roof.

Rosales thanked “our team, whose craftsmanship built this brand and will carry it into this new facility.” De León said the whole workforce is slated to go to Santa Fe Springs, with separate arrangements for people who cannot relocate. The harbor plant is not being described as a second long-term factory. It is the site being consolidated.

Two Crews Are Tied to the Same Building

One crew has a move offer. The other has a WARN notice. Juanita’s has not published a headcount for the Santa Fe Springs building, and it has not said whether it will interview Bumble Bee workers before Nov. 19, 2026. The public record on jobs at 13100 Arctic Circle is still the tuna filing, not a menudo hiring plan.

That silence is the practical split. Santa Fe Springs and the BIG 4 can claim a kept manufacturer. Apex can claim a bigger box for a brand it already calls No. 1. Wilmington keeps a headquarters line on a press release while the cookers leave. Bumble Bee’s people have a date. Juanita’s people have a promise to relocate and a footnote for anyone who cannot.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The buyer: Juanita’s Foods, owned by Apex Capital, with the De La Torre family still holding a significant stake.
• The building: 120,000 square feet at 13100 Arctic Circle, Santa Fe Springs, to become the primary plant after a phased switch.
• The tuna clock: 197 jobs end Nov. 19, 2026, on Bumble Bee’s WARN notice, with the plant aimed at a March 2027 wind-down.
• The stay: Jordan said a nationwide search plus Santa Fe Springs incentives made remaining in Southern California the choice.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• The price: Neither Juanita’s nor Apex disclosed what was paid for the plant or, in 2025, for the majority stake.
• The move date: De León said the transition timeline has not been finalized and that capacity planning is still underway.
• The tuna crew: There is no public answer on whether Bumble Bee workers will be hired onto menudo lines.
• Shared occupancy: How, or whether, the two operations overlap in the building between November 2026 and March 2027 has not been spelled out.

De León said the new site would give Juanita’s “significant room to grow production,” then declined specific volume figures because planning is still open. The growth claim is the buyer’s. The layoff count is the seller’s paperwork.

The Transition Date Is Still Blank

Santa Fe Springs is selling the deal as proof that four small industrial cities can keep a food plant from leaving California. The BIG 4’s own scorecard is a dense one.

BIG 4, AS THE ALLIANCE COUNTS IT

• Footprint: 250 million square feet of industrial space across Commerce, City of Industry, Santa Fe Springs, and Vernon.
• Employers: More than 5,000 businesses and a combined workforce of 200,000.
• Output: An estimated $33 billion in industrial economic activity.
• This deal: Juanita’s Foods is the first company the alliance says it has worked with directly.

Bobadilla put the plant inside that project, saying Santa Fe Springs is “working to ensure that companies can continue to call California home, and that is at the heart of the BIG 4 partnership.” For Apex and Rosales, the same building is the next chapter of a brand that started as a fish cannery and became a menudo house. For Bumble Bee, it is a processing point being cut out of a supply chain.

Nov. 19, 2026, is the date already filed for 197 jobs at 13100 Arctic Circle. Juanita’s has bought the plant, named it the primary site, and left the move calendar and the capacity numbers for later. Until those are published, the winners hold a deed and an incentive sheet, and the losers hold a WARN notice.