MillerCoors has announced in a press release that effective September 2016 it will be closing down its Eden, N.C., brewery.
The decision to close down the brewery will displace approximately 520 employees who work at the company.
MillerCoors said in the press release that the decision to close the brewery was due to the significant overlap of the distribution between Eden and Shenandoah, Va., brewery.
The two breweries are about 200 miles away from each other.
The company said in the press release that though Eden has been performing well over the years, Shenandoah is better suited geographically.
Shenandoah is better suited for the Northeast market and is MillerCoors' newest brewery.
Fernando Palacios, chief integrated supply chain officer at MillerCoors, said in the press release that the company has made a difficult decision.
"Today we made the difficult decision to close our brewery in Eden, N.C., in order to optimize our brewery footprint and streamline operations for greater efficiency across our remaining seven breweries," he said.
Eden's Mayor Wayne Tuggle told the N&R Greensboro.com that the closure of the facility is a devastating loss for Rockingham County moving forward.
"The bottom line on everything is sales," he said. "They lost that and from there they just had to make a business decision and Eden was the loser this time."
The N&R Greensboro.com reported that the loss could cost the county upwards of $1.4 million.
MillerCoors brewery in Eden is the county's largest employers.
MillerCoors also said in the press release that, since its creation seven years ago, the company's volume has declined by nearly 10 million barrels.
The company though said that the volume loss is due to several factors like economic challenges, an explosion of choice and fragmentation within the beer business, and a dramatic change in the way consumers engage with brands.
However, due to the loss, the company's breweries have been operating at an increasingly inefficient capacity, according to the press release.
Though MillerCoors has been taking steps to counter that, the company still expects the volume decline to continue over the next few years.
Rockingham County Manager Lance Metzler told the N&R Greensboro.com that they will do what they can to help the displaced workers.
"Our Rockingham County Economic Development Team will be working closely with our state and local allies such as NC Works and Rockingham Community College to put a plan in place to assist the displaced workers," he said.
