Jelly Belly to lay off close to 70 employees in California

Jelly Belly, the San Francisco Bay Area-based candy company that’s more than 150-years-old, is closing a corporate center in Fairfield and laying off 69 workers.

Layoffs are expected to begin in June and will affect web developers, customer service representatives and accountants, among others, the company said in a government filing. The company’s corporate-commercial operations in Fairfield, Calif., will shut down, but its warehouse and factory will remain open.

The factory, which offers tours and a visitor’s center, is a popular tourist attraction in Fairfield. Production there will continue uninterrupted, the company said. Jelly Belly is known for making more than 100 flavors of jelly beans.

Jelly Belly’s parent company Ferrara Candy Co. acquired the brand in 2023 and also owns popular candy brands including Nerds and Sweetarts.

“Ferrara has made the difficult decision to reduce our corporate workforce,” the company said in a statement to The Times. “This reduction in force is after careful integration across various corporate functions…. We anticipate no impact to the Jelly Belly brand, our products, manufacturing levels, or service to our customers.”

The layoffs are the latest in a series of blows to Bay Area employees in tech and manufacturing sectors. The beer company Anheuser-Busch closed its 50-year-old brewery in Fairfield this month. The tech sector has had thousands of layoffs.

There are currently 374 Jelly Belly employees working in Fairfield, according to a Feb. 20 letter to Fairfield Mayor Catherine Moy from a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification coordinator.

The cuts set to start this summer represent an 18% reduction in the workforce in the area.

Offices will close at 1 Jelly Belly Lane and three more locations on North Watney Way.

Jelly Belly got its start in 1869 when 24-year-old Gustav Goelitz opened a candy business in Illinois. His family continued the business and in 1966 it rose to fame after then-California Gov. Ronald Reagan discovered the flavorful mini jelly beans.

The company began supplying Reagan with mini jelly beans to help him quit smoking and he took the tradition to the White House. Reagan ordered 7,000 pounds of Jelly Bellys for his 1981 inauguration, The Times reported.