Coca-Cola is closing five production and distribution sites across the U.S., a move that will leave nearly 900 workers without jobs and mark one of the company’s largest waves of domestic layoffs in recent memory.
The closures span California, Florida, and Massachusetts, impacting everything from long-running bottling facilities to regional distribution hubs. In each case, the company says it’s part of a broader shift: streamlining operations, leaning into automation, and outsourcing parts of its supply chain to external bottlers.
But the real cost is human.
In American Canyon, California, 135 jobs vanished when a massive 350,000-square-foot facility shut down at the end of June. A similar story is playing out in Salinas, where 81 more will be out of work by August. Florida already saw its Dunedin plant go dark in May—200 employees affected there. And earlier this year, Modesto lost a bottling center, along with 101 jobs. The biggest hit may still be coming: in Northampton, Massachusetts, 319 positions hang in limbo as the plant there inches closer to a long-delayed closure.
Altogether, the toll is close to 900 jobs.
Coca-Cola isn’t in financial trouble. Sales are up. Pricing strategies are working. Even Costco is switching over to Coke products in its food courts. But that’s part of what makes this moment harder to digest: the layoffs aren’t a response to collapsing revenue. They’re about efficiency. Cutting complexity. Doing more with less.
Automation plays a role, as always. So do tariffs—particularly on aluminum, which has pushed up the cost of cans. These aren’t short-term fluctuations, either. The underlying message from Coke is clear: the structure of the business is changing, and facilities that don’t fit the model are being phased out, even if they’ve been running for decades.
Some workers will get severance packages. Others are being offered job placement help. But for many, it’s the end of a long chapter—one that brought steady paychecks and local employment to towns that are now being asked to move on.
Coca-Cola operates more than 950 facilities globally, so these five closures may seem like a footnote on a spreadsheet. But for the people packing up lockers and walking out of gates for the last time, it’s not about scale. It’s about what comes next.
Source: Newsbreak