Tucson City Jobs Created by Canning Company

A local food company's acquisition will help create more Tucson city jobs in the manufacturing industry.

Arizona Canning Co. recently announced that it has purchased "Luck's" brand from ConAgra Foods, an acquisition that will help create 40 new jobs at the Tucson-based food manufacturer's plant.

Positions will be available in production, maintenance, logistics, quality assurance and engineering. According to an article by the Arizona Daily Star, the company plans to fill the openings through external hires. Arizona Canning Co. currently employs 94 workers.

"We are continuing to look at how we can grow our business to fill out our capacity and the Luck's brand was part of an active search we were doing for brand acquisitions," Plant Manager Shane Gesbeck said.

The brand acquisition will leave Arizona Canning Co. responsible for selling and producing the Luck's brand, as well warehouse operations and fulfilling customer orders throughout the country.

Arizona Canning Co. plans to begin operating 24 hours per day, five days per week. The plant currently operates 24 hours per day, three and a half days per week.

Arizona Canning Co. manufactures canned food, including refried beans, whole beans and enchilada sauce, under licensed brands such as La Costena and SunVista. Luck's products include Luck's beans, Luck's fried apples and Luck's chicken and dumplings.

The Tucson area's manufacturing industry and economy as a whole, both of which have continued shedding jobs, could certainly use the additional positions.

The city's manufacturing industry employed 26,000 workers during December 2009, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is down from 26,200 workers during November and a 3.3 percent decrease from December 2008.

During December, Tucson's unemployment rate increased from 7.9 percent to 8 percent, following a decrease from 8.4 percent during November. Despite the increase, the city's rate was still lower than the national unemployment rate at the time of 10 percent, although that number has since declined to 9.7 percent.

Tucson had a total non-farm employment of 363,700 workers during December, which is down from 363,900 workers during November and a 3.7 percent decrease from December 2008.