Nestlé will shut down its factory in Solon and move production to Gaffney, South Carolina, the company has confirmed, ending manufacturing at a Cuyahoga County site long associated with some of the company’s best-known frozen food brands. The Akron Beacon Journal reported the decision on October 22, 2026.
Key details about the closure remain unknown. Nestlé has not disclosed when the Solon factory will shut down, and it is not yet known how many employees at the plant will be affected by the move to South Carolina. Those unanswered questions leave workers and local officials waiting for a timeline and a clearer picture of the job losses involved.
Employees at the Solon facility have been offered transition support, according to the company, and they can apply for other Nestlé jobs in Ohio. That option matters because the company continues to operate a number of other sites around the state, even as manufacturing in Solon comes to an end.
The closure follows an earlier round of cuts at the same plant. In 2024, Nestlé cut 216 jobs at its Solon manufacturing facility, saying at the time that it was “optimizing our manufacturing network and shifting some production from our Solon factory to other sites within our U.S. network.” The latest decision continues that shift, this time moving production out of Ohio entirely to Gaffney.
The Solon manufacturing facility, at 5750 Harper Road, launched several brands, including Stouffer’s, Lean Cuisine and Nestlé Toll House cookie dough. Other brands had also relocated to Solon over the years, including Hot Pockets, Lean Pockets, DiGiorno, California Pizza Kitchen, Tombstone and Jack’s pizza, giving the plant a central role in the company’s frozen pizza and prepared-meals business.
Nestlé is not leaving Ohio altogether. The company still lists manufacturing operations in Batavia, in Cleveland at 2621 W. 25th St. and in Zanesville, along with distribution operations in Brecksville and Streetsboro and research and development sites in Dublin and Marysville. Additional Solon offices and research and development sites on Bainbridge and Cannon roads also remain listed.
For Solon, the immediate impact is the loss of the Harper Road manufacturing operation itself, while other Nestlé offices and research sites in the city remain on the company’s list of locations. What happens next will depend on information the company has not yet released, including the shutdown date and the number of employees affected, as workers consider transition support and other Nestlé jobs in Ohio.
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