Bumble Bee Foods/Seamless Service For Southern CA Cannery

While the West Coast was once lined with canneries, the last operational tuna packing plant in the continental United States is located in east Los Angeles County, several miles from the sea, in Santa Fe Springs. In this age of global trade, tuna loins are pre-cooked and frozen at facilities overseas and then delivered via temperature-controlled shipping containers for thawing and packing. Owned and operated by Bumble Bee Foods, the plant includes two warehouses as well as a 190,000 square foot manufacturing facility and employs 250 workers in two shifts.

A Wide Array of Services 

For over a decade, Bumble Bee Foods has relied on Securitas to provide round-the-clock security at their Santa Fe Springs facility.  Officers perform a wide-range of essential services to ensure safe and smooth operations. During business hours, the security center doubles as a reception area, allowing officers to monitor the comings and goings of personnel, contractors and visitors, and inspect outgoing packages and bags to prevent the loss of inventory.  As trucks arrive to deliver shipping containers, Securitas staff review paperwork, including Bills of Laden. 

Overnight and weekends, officers patrol the campus, monitor the close-caption television and make sure that the facilities are properly locked and secured.  They also keep an eye on the greater neighborhood as a bit of preventative maintenance.  Santa Fe Springs is industrial, and the deserted weekend streets can serve as a lure for potential problematic activities, according to Bumble Bee Foods’ Betty Mendoza.  “We had an issue with drag racing, and the officers called me right away.”  After the police had dispersed the makeshift gathering, the officers called Mendoza a second time to keep her informed.
 
Securitas also provides the essential, site-specific duty of monitoring temperatures of the facility’s freezers and refrigerators during the weekends to help ensure that all the tuna is kept at the right temperature.  “The freezers need to be kept at zero degrees,” notes Mendoza, “if the temperature goes up, the officers need to call the electrician and plant engineer.”

Reliable and Responsive Personnel

“The officers are very trustworthy and they go out of their way to look out for problems,” she notes. Mendoza relates an incident in which a Securitas officer was able to interrupt a thief from stealing a pallet and credits the officers’ instincts and responses.  “They have a professional demeanor, which helps the employees feel confident that they are safe and secure in the workplace.”

Mendoza keeps up to date by daily post reports and a monthly one-on-one meeting with her Branch Manager.  “It’s a good working relationship,” she says.  “If I need anything, my branch anager goes to work on it right away, and I know I can always reach them quickly.  Securitas is reliable and attends to my needs.”

“And the fees are reasonable,” Mendoza adds.  “The bottom line is always the dollar, so I do go out to bid with other companies to see if Securitas is still competitive.  The answer is: they are.”

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