Two months after Coca-Cola Co. bought its Sacramento bottling and distribution operation, Coke is closing the production facility on Stockton Boulevard.
David Ethridge, general manager of the Sacramento business, said the 60-employee plant will close at a date to be determined.
"It's a difficult decision," he said.
The bottling plant has been a fixture on Stockton Boulevard since 1936 and produces about 9 million cases of product a year.
The shutdown won't affect administrative and distribution offices on Gateway Park Boulevard in Natomas, or a distribution site in Modesto, Ethridge said.
The combined operation employs around 465 workers and serves nine Central Valley counties. Coke spokeswoman Corby Casler said "we have quite a few openings throughout this area," so it's possible some of the 60 affected workers could find jobs with Coke.
Ethridge said Coke quickly realized, after buying the Central Valley business, that it didn't need the Stockton Boulevard production facility.
"We have excess capacity," he said.
Coke has production plants up and down the West Coast.
The parent Coke company bought the operation in a hurry at the request of the Sellers family, which had owned the business since its founding in 1927.
"We did not have the time to do all the due diligence we would have liked to have done," Ethridge said.
He said he wasn't sure of why the sale was done so quickly.
Ethridge said the timing of the shutdown has to be negotiated with officials at Teamsters Local 150, which represents the workforce at Stockton Boulevard. Teamsters officials were not available for comment.
Call The Bee's Dale Kasler, (916) 321-1066. Follow him on Twitter @dakasler..
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