Fairfield officials are bracing for the loss of local jobs and revenue expected to follow the closure of Anheuser-Busch’s longtime Budweiser facility in their city sometime next year.
The company announced plans on Thursday to shutter two facilities in Fairfield and in Merrimack, New Hampshire, and to sell another plant in Newark, New Jersey.
The closures follow the company’s efforts over the past five years to update and modernize its U.S. manufacturing operations, investing nearly $2 billion in 100 facilities across the country, according to a Anheuser-Busch spokesperson.
The three U.S. facilities that will close have a combined 475 employees, who will be offered full-time jobs at other company locations.
The Fairfield brewery opened in 1976, and is located along Interstate Highway 80 at 3101 Busch Drive.
Fairfield’s mayor said California’s “hostile business environment” was to blame for the closure in her city.
“Benicia is losing a refinery, we lost Copart, a huge company, and now Budweiser,” Moy said Thursday following an announcement of the closure. “If we don’t change course, our beautiful state will sink further.”
City Manager David Gassaway, in a letter to the Fairfield City Council, said the timing for the closure was early next year, but no specific date had been set.
“The impacts for us will be loss of local employment and impact to our water utility operations and revenue,” he said.
Gassaway said he asked to be put in touch with the company’s real estate team in order to work on a potential reuse for the site.
“To be clear, I don’t think that will be an easy task given the large and highly specialized nature of the facility. I hope I’m wrong though,” Gassaway said.