Rob AriasEmeryville-founded Clif Bar, who have called their EmeryTech office on Hollis ‘home’ for over 15 years, appear to be winding down operations at the location according to former employees who have reached out to us.
Founded in Emeryville in 1992 by Gary Erickson and his wife Kit Crawford, Clif Bar moved to neighboring Berkeley in 1996. They rapidly grew before returning to Emeryville in 2010 signing a 15-year lease at a renovated factory originally built in the 1940s for Grove Valve & Regulatory.
The Grove Valve building was renovated by Ellis Partners in 2007 and was occupied by a variety of tenants prior to Clif Bar including Charles Chocolates and briefly as an Andronico’s Central Market.
Over the past decade-plus, Clif developed a reputation for being among the best best places to work in America offering child care, a private gym, cafe, and fostering a work culture that paid employees, or “Clifsters”, to volunteer in their communities.
They even supported a house band called the Grove Valve Orchestra and hosted community events at their employee theater.
At its peak, their Emeryville headquarters employed more than 400 people and the company employed an estimated 1300 people across the US, Canada and Europe.
Clif Bar hosted community events like this performance by the Emery High band, had an organic garden for employees and a private cafe named “Kali’s Kitchen.”
After rebuffing an early offer from The Quaker Oats Company, Clif Bar was acquired by Mondelez International in 2022 for $2.9B.
Since, Mondelez has initiated a series of layoff rounds as they absorb the company. The Chicago-headquartered Mondelez was spun off of Kraft Foods in 2012 and owns dozens of popular brands including Oreo, Wheat Thins and Philadelphia Cream Cheese.
Since the buyout, Clif’s reputation as an employer seems to be in a free-fall with many negative reviews on Glassdoor pointing to the timeline of the acquisition.
“[Their] culture kind of tanked after Mondelez bought them out.”
“[They] sold out everything good they stood for,” “[Their] culture kind of tanked after Mondelez bought them out,” “Mondelez has horrible business ethics and bad processes for a large company,” are among a few recent reviews posted on the jobs platform that allows employees to criticize their employers anonymously.
Mondelez has been criticized in the past for “ruining” brands and was recently rejected by the Hershey’s board during a 2024 acquisition attempt. The Mondelez operated Clif Bar is also currently being challenged for its “Climate Neutral” claim in their Clif Kid Zbars.
Early employees that were laid off reportedly received generous severance packages but these have tapered off according to former employees.
Several rounds of layoffs over the past two years has whittled down the local workforce to reportedly less than a quarter of what it once was and are now operating with a “bare bones” operation of Marketing, IT & HR employees. Another round of layoffs is expected to take place in June according to our sources.
According to former employees familiar with the matter, most of Clif’s remaining employees will be moved to the “Tanium” building at 2100 Powell on the Emeryville Peninsula by end of Summer. Most of their R&D team will be moved to the Foundry31 building where Clif already leases space.
Premier Nutrition, currently located nearby at the Foundry31 building, are rumored to be moving into the space early next year. Premier manufactures PowerBar among other nutritional products.
We reached out to the Mondelez media team for comment but did not year back within 24 hours.
Sad to seem them go, but this seems inevitable. Clif bar was the first “healthy” energy bar but that’s become a pretty competitive space in recent years. Looking forward to whomever takes over their buildings in Emeryville. Usually when one door closes here, a better door opens up quite fast!
5yr Clif employee here – Gary (the owner) truly sold out in a way he said he never would. Another story of the corruptive force of money/power imo.
It was a true force for good, an inspiration for how business could make the world a better place. and now it’s just a part of another megacorp. Very, incredibly sad to watch happen. Also very thankful to have been a part of it while I was able to. Thanks for the story – all very accurate based on what I’ve heard.
Former employee of over 10 years. The company did in fact sell out to one of the behemoths it swore it would never become. With the acquisition it did away with its community engagement, focus on sustainability, wellness programs, and we all just became numbers again. Sad the way it all went down, watching upper management celebrate as business relationships that took decades to build were shut down. A lot of people were heavily invested in this company’s vision and the acquisition was a reminder that in the end it was still all about profit over people. If you think this company still represents the values and vision of the founders you are sorely mistaken. It is now essentially just another corporate brand.
Current employee and legacy Clif here, who somehow did not get in the right line for the severance package. Clif has gone entirely to hell and all of the above is true. The remaining 70-ish of us (from a high of about 500 pre-acquisition) are being relocated to the 2200 Powell St office building in July. The profit over people adage is REAL. Who knows what the parameters of the deal really were, but everyone has their price, and the founder had theirs. The cost was the authenticity of a wonderful brand that we, especially our bakery employees, made with heart and with love. We had 5 bottom lines (People, Planet, Business, Brand and Community) and now there is only one. It has been a devastating spiral to watch, and to be subjected to, with zero power to change it. We’re trying from the inside but there is no way to not feel like you’re in Dante’s 7th level every day. I wish we’d at least been offered the opportunity to buy the company – we were employee-owners before this – or if they had taken a page from Patagonia’s book, but in the end (stage capitalism), money talks.
Clif Bar was a special place to work. Those of us who had the good fortune of working a few years or more before the sale were extremely lucky that the value of our employee stock essentially quadrupled (we were issued the unallocated shares which doubled the shares we had at the time and mondelez paid double the last estimated share price). What this amounted to for me was a single payout that nearly doubled my cumulative salary for the entire 6 years I worked there prior to the sale. Mondelez is a heartless corporation that gutted Clif Bar, it’s true. I personally made it through all the big rounds of layoffs and witnessed it become a ghost of itself with an empty building containing a few disheartened employees who seemed a shell of their former happy and productive selves. For those that are still around and lament what it’s become I’d highly suggest looking for your next white road adventure and leaving mondelez in your rear view. Everyone is entitled to their feelings but I choose to see my time their as gift and the sale as a catalyst to help me move on with funds that invested will take care of me and my family for years. It’s sad but everything in life ends and I am glad to have been on the ride through the good times and even through the some painful Mondelez years if only to underscore how good we had it. Gary and Kit if you’re out there – thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Gary and Kit are two of the most false faced people in food. They could have sold the company to the employees and still been wealthy beyond belief. They advertised “Not for Sale” and did the opposite. They promoted five aspirations which became five lies. They sold false hope.