Cargill Closing Last Milwaukee Meatpacking Plant

219-231 S. Emmber Ln.. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

The Menomonee Valley‘s role as a meatpacking hub will soon end.

In a WARN notice filed Tuesday, Cargill announced it would eliminate 221 jobs and close its euphemistically named “protein processing plant” at 200 S. Emmber Ln. The facility makes ground beef and other beef products.

The closure, which is scheduled to be completed by the end of May, marks the final chapter for an industry that was once the city’s leader and employed thousands.

“Cargill has made the difficult decision to close its Milwaukee ground beef facility to better align our portfolio with current customer demand and prioritize investments where they are needed most for the future,” said the company in a statement. “We recognize the impact this decision has on our 221 employees, and our focus is on supporting them with respect, care and assistance as they navigate this transition. Moving forward, we will shift ground beef production volume to our other North American beef processing facilities, including the nearby Butler, Wisconsin plant, to continue reliably serving our customers.”

It follows Cargill’s 2014 closure of a slaughterhouse on the west side of Potawatomi Casino Hotel and a research and development facility that resulted in the loss of 600 jobs. Potawatomi paid $6.3 million for the properties the next year. The site has been cleared, and the slaughterhouse property was used as an outdoor concert venue in 2024.

“Cargill’s departure marks the end of an era,” said Mayor Cavalier Johnson in a statement. He said his office has already been in touch with Employ Milwaukee to coordinate assistance for those looking for new jobs.

Milwaukee’s meatpacking legacy will live on through street signs and building names, such as Plankinton, Layton, Peck and Cudahy; still-operating sausage makers Usinger’s and Klement’s Sausage Co.; and large suburban operator Smithfield Foods Inc., which is located in Cudahy, once a meatpacking quasi-company town.

Milwaukee Stockyards, previously located east of Cargill’s last remaining facility, closed its facility in 2004 and relocated to rural Reeseville. It was once the “largest veal and calf market in the world.” As late as the 1950s, Milwaukee meatpackers were said in newspaper accounts to be planning a wave of investment to rival Chicago as the world leader, but then it all unraveled. The largest employer, Plankinton, closed in the early 1960s.

Cargill’s closure will leave an oddly shaped, vacant site in the middle of the Menomonee Valley. Located just south of the ramp to the James E. Groppi Unity Bridge (16th Street), the 20.9-acre site would be the largest available property in the area.

A series of attached buildings is located on the north side of the site. According to a Wisconsin Historical Society report, the oldest building is a five-story structure that was built in 1940.

The complex is split across two parcels: 219-231 and 320-338 S. Emmber Ln. As a result of its 2015 purchase and its existing complex, Potawatomi owns land north, east and west of the property. The south side of the property is bordered by Canadian Pacific Kansas City‘s Muskego Yard.

Cargill, an international food conglomerate based in Minnesota, continues to own and operate the former Ambrosia Chocolate plant at 12500 W. Carmen Ave. on Milwaukee’s Far Northwest Side. In 2021, it eliminated 80 jobs at that plant, according to a prior WARN notice.

The Cargill beef complex was assembled and reconfigured as Milwaukee’s meatpacking industry ebbed and flowed. It was originally part of Plankinton Packing Co., a division of Swift & Co., and Peck Meat Packing Corp., but Plankinton shuttered in 1961 and Peck bought the land. The complex was later known as Emmber Foods and then Emmpak before being acquired by Excel Corp., a Cargill subsidiary, in 2001.

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