Both the Bakersfield and Tulare Haagen Dazs ice cream plants will temporally lay off workers, around 1000 in total, in November and perhaps longer. They did the same last year. Ice cream sales during the winter months are particularly slow and the trend year-over-year, is not their friend.

State figures show California production was off 10% from 2016 to 2017. CDFA numbers show overall ice cream production in the state is down 4.5% this year vs last, on a downward trend in recent years – perhaps based on customer demand for lower fat, lower sugar products.

The parent company Nestle employs 769 in Bakersfield and 273 in Tulare according to a state layoff notice.

It takes some 12 pounds of milk to make one gallon of ice cream.

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Another company will be remodeling an old industrial building on the outskirts of Woodlake in coming months to grow and distribute pot.

Calling themselves Uncle Green, the 7.7-acre project site is located at the southeast corner of State Route 216 (Avenue 344) and Road 196.

According to an environmental document released by the city in October, the Uncle Green project would rehab a former pipe manufacturing complex. Tenant improvements to the abandoned pipe manufacturing facility ,116,250 total square feet of facility space include: 27,000 square feet of vegetation rooms, 77,000 square feet of flower rooms,12,250 square feet of office and other operational rooms and construction of an additional 44,000 square feet of cultivation space. The project would employ 10 to 15.

City planner Jason Waters says the partners on the Uncle Green project, Sabrina Lalani and Moe Essa, are also buying another 17.8 acres also on the  western edge town at Road 204 and Avenue 344. They  plan on removing the olives and building a new industrial park in Woodlake. The city recently agreed to sell them  the land, beating out a rival bid for the same property by another firm, ironically for exactly the same bid – $1.7 million.

Another project in town- 7 Points – involves an old packing house  also on the  west end of Woodlake that has now been annexed into the city.It too will be a future cultivation and manufacturing  facility for cannabis. The buildings are currently being remodeled. The name comes from the marijuana leaf.

A significant player in the industry – Premium Extracts – recently relocated their project from Hanford to Woodlake due to restrictions in Hanford to allow only medical-use pot distribution while Woodlake allows both recreational and medical use cannabis business.

Waters says to date, none of the pot grown projects, perhaps a dozen, is underway with production but  are either in the permitting or construction stage. One retail dispensary has opened for business in town, the first in Tulare County.