Ferrara Candy Company, the Chicago-based owner of Jelly Belly, plans to permanently eliminate 69 corporate and administrative positions at the iconic candy maker’s Bay Area headquarters in Fairfield, according to a notice filed with state and local officials. The company said it is ceasing its corporate and commercial operations at multiple addresses tied to the Jelly Belly campus off Interstate 80, with layoffs rolling out in phases beginning in early June and continuing through January 2027.
The positions being cut are largely office-based roles spanning marketing, graphic design, finance, accounting, information technology, customer service, and purchasing. Ferrara said the reductions will not affect candy production, warehousing, or the Jelly Belly Visitor Center, a longtime tourist attraction in Solano County. The company currently employs 374 people at the Fairfield site.
Fairfield Mayor Catherine Moy shared the news over the weekend, and City Manager David Gassaway said the cuts were not unexpected. When Ferrara acquired Jelly Belly in 2023, city officials said at the time that the Fairfield factory would remain open and local manufacturing jobs would be protected. Gassaway noted the reductions were consistent with what the company had indicated when it first took over, describing them as a consolidation of administrative services at Ferrara’s out-of-state headquarters.
The news adds to a difficult stretch for Fairfield’s employment base. Anheuser-Busch has separately announced the closure of its nearly 50-year-old Fairfield brewery in early 2026, a decision expected to eliminate 238 jobs from the city.
