Charles Crane/MDN Bags of Dot’s Homestyle Pretzels fill a shelf at the Loaf ‘N Jug on Burdick Expressway in Minot on Tuesday after parent company Hershey’s announced it will be closing the company's flagship Velva plant in the fall. Each bag of local snack favorites has Velva marked with a star on a map.

VELVA — The Hershey’s Company announced on Tuesday morning that the decision had been made to close the flagship Velva facility for the popular Dot’s Pretzels.

“Due to the physical limitations of the building and cost associated with the Velva facility, it has led us to the hard decision to cease operations and close the facility.” Hershey’s spokesman Todd Scott said in a statement. “Our goal is to ensure everyone is supported during this period of change.”

The story of the ubiquitous salty snack began in the kitchen of Dot Henke of Velva, but quickly outgrew the confines of her home and the local grocery store that let her use their ovens after hours. This necessitated the move into the current facility, which required a great deal of renovations and infrastructure improvements. At a Start Up Minot event held at the Carnegie Center in 2022, Henke credited the City of Velva for opening the doors to economic development funds and in helping her navigate through the various complexities to ensure her operation could function in the early days.

“Velva guided me, they listened to me, and they gave me their opinion. They did support me huge.” Henke said at the event, “So just keep your prayers going that they keep that one open, because that is the story. That’s where it began and that’s where it should continue.”

Henke and her partners RDO would go on to the pull the trigger on the deal with Hershey’s Co., who acquired Dot’s Homestyle Pretzels in a deal worth a reported $1.2 billion in November 2021. Hershey’s would perform additional renovations and updates to the Velva plant in 2022, but according to Scott there was little more that could be done to bring the facility up to par with the company’s other manufacturing plants in Kansas and Arizona.

“Dot’s Pretzels is the fastest-growing U.S. pretzel brand and is one of The Hershey Company’s leading power brands in our portfolio of Salty Snacks. But to maintain that position, we must increase our capacity and improve efficiency at our manufacturing plants to continue to grow the brand.” Scott said.

The 27 hourly employees who currently staff the Velva plant learned of the news on Tuesday morning, giving them around two months’ notice before the facility winds down and officially closes. Hershey’s has indicated that the remaining staff has been given an offer to relocate to a position at another plant in the Hershey umbrella, and that those not interested in relocation will receive a severance package that would include a lump sum payment and other benefits.

The news of the plant’s closure sent a shockwave through Velva, a community with a population a hair over a thousand and which can be found marked on every package of Dot’s to this day. While Velva City Commision President Mike Schreiner said a part of him knew a closure of the plant was possible, he hoped it wouldn’t happen.

“I know we’re only talking about 27 jobs, but I had hoped they would reach out to the city to see what could be done. If anything, we’d like to preserve the legacy of Dot’s in our town.” Schreiner said, “You tell somebody you’re from Velva, it doesn’t matter where you’re at, there’s a sense of pride in the community when people know you’re from Velva. ‘That’s where Dot’s Pretzels is made.’ That’s the birthplace.”

While his day was occupied fielding calls, Schreiner said internally his mind was spinning with various ideas and possibilities for the future, such as by having the city retain the old facility to repurpose it. However, Schreiner cautioned that no conversations have occurred between the city and Hershey’s nor does a concrete roadmap currently exist.

“That’s kind of why we’re going to jump on it from a city perspective. If you’ve ever been to Hershey, Pennsylvania, its about the history about the company. I’d like them to turn around and do something similar here. This is where it started, this is where it came from. Pay homage to Dot who started it.” Schreiner said.