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Frito-Lay has been making salty snacks at its Rancho Cucamonga facility in California since 1970. It's the birthplace of the Flamin' Hot Cheeto, allegedly.

PepsiCo Foods U.S. this morning confirmed to Food Manufacturing that the company will shut down manufacturing operations at the Rancho Cucamonga site. However, the warehouse, distribution, fleet and transportation teams will continue to operate at the location. Still, hundreds of workers will be impacted.

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"We are truly grateful for all the support over the last five decades from our Rancho Cucamonga manufacturing team as well as the local community," PepsiCo said. The company is offering pay and benefits to employees, but it stopped short of providing specifics. According to workers who posted on social media, they received 10 weeks' pay as severance.

The Frito-Lay closure was not included in the California Employment Development Department's list of WARN notices, so the company hadn't yet filed one with the state.

In April, PepsiCo lowered earnings expectations for 2025 due to "elevated levels of volatility and uncertainty," particularly increased tariff costs and a drop in consumer spending. The company acknowledged that years of significant price increases and changing tastes had weakened demand for its snacks and drinks.

PepsiCo tried to turn the consumer spending tide last year by publicly reversing its "shrinkflation" practices. The company started adding more chips to each bag and boosting the size of variety packs, but it looks like it wasn't enough to halt the decline.

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June 11, 2025

Warehouse, distribution, transportation business units will continue to operate, but snack processing at the 55-year-old plant has come to an end.

Andy Hanacek

PepsiCo has stopped production at a Frito-Lay processing plant in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., after more than 50 years in operation, according to local news reports. The company confirmed that manufacturing operations were ended at the plant. The warehouse, distribution and transportation portions of the complex would remain in operation.

The company said it would provide severance to the workers impacted, but it did not divulge the number of employees affected, nor the details of the severance packages. One news report noted that “hundreds of workers were let go” without an opportunity to transfer to other departments to keep their jobs, while another news report cited social media posts by laid-off workers saying they received 10 weeks’ pay as severance.

The Frito-Lay Rancho Cucamonga facility opened in 1970 and once employed Richard Montañez, the rags-to-riches former employee who claimed to have invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos — and whose lawsuit against the company over the claim was dismissed two weeks ago.

About the Author

Andy Hanacek has covered meat, poultry, bakery and snack foods as a B2B editor for nearly 20 years, and has toured hundreds of processing plants and food companies, sharing stories of innovation and technological advancement throughout the food supply chain. In 2018, he won a Folio:Eddie Award for his unique "From the Editor's Desk" video blogs, and he has brought home additional awards from Folio and ASBPE over the years. In addition, Hanacek led the Meat Industry Hall of Fame for several years and was vice president of communications for We R Food Safety, a food safety software and consulting company.

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A Frito-Lay plant in Southern California is shuttering manufacturing operations after five decades, potentially affecting hundreds of jobs.

A statement from PepsiCo Foods U.S., emailed to USA TODAY on June 11, confirmed the "shutdown of manufacturing operations" at Frito-Lay's Rancho Cucamonga site. Although the plant will cease manufacturing operations, its warehouse, distribution, fleet and transportation teams will continue to operate at this location, according to the food, beverage and snack corporation.

"We are truly grateful for all the support over the last five decades from our Rancho Cucamonga manufacturing team as well as the local community," PepsiCo Foods U.S.'s statement reads. "We are committed to supporting those impacted through this transition and we are offering pay and benefits to impacted employees."

According to Frito-Lay, it has "more than 30 highly advanced manufacturing plants across the country."

How many Frito-Lay Rancho Cucamonga plant employees may be laid off?

PepsiCo did not disclose how many employees would be affected by the shutdown of the manufacturing plant. It is also unclear when the possible layoffs will occur, as the PepsiCo facility is not in California's Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) database as of June 11. The WARN Act requires employers to give 60 days’ notice before a mass layoff, plant closure or relocation.

Employees at the plant told KTLA that they were let go, with some not being allowed to transfer to different departments to possibly keep their jobs.

The Frito-Lay Rancho Cucamonga facility also once employed Richard Montañez, an American businessman who took credit for inventing Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, although the snack brand and PepsiCo have disputed his claims.

Jonathan Limehouse covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at JLimehouse@gannett.com.

More than five decades of snack food production came to an end this week when Frito-Lay closed manufacturing operations at its Rancho Cucamonga facility, eliminating hundreds of jobs in the process.

The plant has been a major employer in the area since opening in 1970, staffing thousands over its 55-year run.

The facility also gained cultural significance as the birthplace of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, which were introduced in 1991, though the origin story has been the subject of litigation.

Frito-Lay is owned by parent company PepsiCo Foods U.S., which confirmed the shutdown of manufacturing operations at the site.

“We are truly grateful for all the support over the last five decades from our Rancho Cucamonga manufacturing team as well as the local community,” the company said in a statement Monday. “We are committed to supporting those impacted through this transition and we are offering pay and benefits to impacted employees.”

The company did not specify how many employees were affected.

Former workers posted on social media that they were given 10 weeks of severance pay.

The abrupt nature of the closure left employees scrambling to figure out their next steps.

“I was supposed to get married this year, now I have to find a new job or at least figure a way to survive,” one laid-off worker said on Reddit.

The Employment Development Department confirmed that Frito-Lay had not filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, with the state, which typically requires employers to give 60 days advance notice of mass layoffs.

The Rancho Cucamonga closure is part of a broader pattern of PepsiCo facility shutdowns. Earlier this year, the company announced the closure of a Frito-Lay plant in Liberty, N.Y., laying off 287 workers, and cut 56 jobs at a warehouse in Maryland.

The closures come as PepsiCo faces declining snack sales. In its most recent earnings call, chief executive Ramon Laguarta said the company was “right-sizing the cost” of its snacks division after Frito-Lay sales volume dropped slightly in the first quarter.

Warehouse, distribution, fleet and transportation services will continue to operate out of the facility.