Coca-Cola to leave Portland

Coca-Cola is leaving Portland.

The company announced in a press release this morning that its Portland production facility will close Nov. 1.

Local employees were informed of the decision this morning.

“We have made the difficult decision to relocate our production operations to our Indianapolis area facility,” Coca-Cola Consolidated said in the press release. “This decision reflects our overall growth in this region and is a result of our investment in a new facility in Whitestown. Our Portland facility will remain operational until November and we will work closely with our valued teammates to provide them the best information and options possible.”

Both Portland Mayor John Boggs and Jay County Development Corporation executive director Travis Richards were unaware of the impending change prior to this morning’s announcement.

“My first concern is the … jobs that we’re going to be losing,” said Boggs. “

Coca-Cola, 1617 N. Meridian St., currently has 54 employees at its Portland facility.

Sources told The Commercial Review this morning that about 10 of those employees have been with the company for at least 30 years and some have been there more than 40 years.

“It’s always hard to lose an employer, especially one that’s had such a long tenure in the community,” said Richards.

Boggs added that he wished the city had been given an opportunity to make a pitch to keep a Coca-Cola presence in Portland.

“I wish they would have talked to us if there was any possibility to keep the plant or a storage terminal or something open,” said Boggs.

A source told The Commercial Review that third-shift employees were asked to stay after their shift this morning. Representatives from Coca-Cola then delivered the news to the first- and third-shift employees together.

Officials at the Portland facility would not comment on the announcement this morning.

The news of the local shutdown comes less than a month after the company announced that it would close its Lafayette distribution center, also in response of a shift to the new facility in Whitestown. The Lafayette facility will close at the end of April, the Journal and Courier (Lafayette) reported March 1.

The Whitestown automated warehouse and distribution facility is slated to be complete in April. In its press release, Coca-Cola said the new facility is part of an ongoing effort to assess its needs in the state and region.

With the new site becoming operational, Coca-Cola will consolidate warehouse distribution operations including from its Speedway facility in Indianapolis. The shift opened up the opportunity for expanded production at the Speedway site.

Brian Nick, Coca-Cola vice president of communications, said this morning that after that facility is shut down the company will likely move equipment to other locations. Ultimately, the Portland site will be put up for sale.

The company has been in the community for more than a century, having celebrated 100 years in Portland in 2019. It was founded by Orien Holsapple and originally operated out of a frame structure adjacent to the Hood Building on Main Street. For many years, it was owned by the Robert Delauter family and its bottling operations were housed on Arch Street in a building that is now the home of Museum of the Soldier. Operations were moved in the early 1980s to the current location, which was formerly the site of Horizon Homes, a manufactured housing company. The Delauter family later sold the business to a larger Coca-Cola distributor. Though the Portland business began as a bottler, in recent years it has produced a variety of canned products for Coca-Cola.

Coca-Cola was honored as 2016 Industry of the Year in the Jay County Community Awards. The Portland plant was named North American Profit Team of the Year in 2012.

With more than 50 jobs leaving the city, Richards emphasized the importance of JCDC and others helping those individuals in their search for new jobs and job training.