Wednesday, October 25, 2023–9:30 a.m.

-Adam Carey, Rome News-Tribune-

This story is possible because of a news-sharing agreement with the Rome News-Tribune. More information can be found at northwestgeorgianews.com

The Summit Hill Foods plant on First Avenue in downtown Rome will be sold on Dec. 31 and the plant will shut down.

Vice President of Human Resources Jason Marion alerted Rome Mayor Sundai Stevenson and Floyd County Commission Chair Allison Watters in an Oct. 9 letter, required under the WARN — Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification — Act.

All 80 employees will be terminated, he said.

“This action is permanent,” Marion wrote. “It is not known at this time whether any of the terminated employees will be employed after December 31, 2023, by the purchaser… The employees at the plant are not represented by a union.”

He did not say who the purchaser is.

It has been a busy few years for the former Southeastern Mills. CEO Steve Goodyear was promoted to the position in November 2022 after joining the company in 2019 as a senior vice president over sales and marketing. 

The name change, to Summit Hill Foods, occurred in October 2020, which was  a year after the ribbon cutting for a 140,000-square-foot “Center for Superior Logistics” based in the Floyd County Industrial Park.

Founded in 1941, the company now has manufacturing sites in Rome, Louisiana and Salt Lake City. Fred Johnson and Jim Austin bought Theo Stivers Milling in 1941 and changed the name to Southeastern Mills. Thirty-one years later, it was sold to Vernon and Gaynelle Grizzard in 1972.