Sea Cliff's Pirate Brands to Lay Off 55 Workers

Pirate Brands, LLC, the maker of "Pirate Booty" snacks based in Sea Cliff, was sold Monday and will lay off all 55 employees by October. 

Newsday reported that the layoffs come following Monday's sale of the private company for $185 million in cash to New Jersey-based B&G Foods Inc., a large publicly traded food company.

Pirate Brands filed a notice with the state Labor Department Tuesday that it will lay off all 55 employees from its Sea Cliff headquarters.

Neither B&G or Pirate Brands returned Newsday's requests for comment.

But David L. Wenner, President and Chief Executive Officer of B&G Foods, issued a statement, saying the company "under the leadership of Mike Repole, (has) done an outstanding job with Pirate Brands over the past five years, building upon the fun, innovative, all-natural brand originated by Robert Ehrlich in 1987."

We look forward to continuing to bring consumers great-tasting, all natural snack foods they have come to love and expect from Pirate Brands," Wenner said in the statement, reported by AOL's 'Daily Finance.'

The statement said nothing of the jobs about to be lost in Sea Cliff.

B&G, valued $1.8 billion at the end of the Wednesday's trading, has made a series of snack food acquisitions over the past year, including Old London and TrueNorth, Newsday reported. Its other brands include Ac'cent seasonings, B&M baked beans and Cream of Wheat.