EDEN,N.C.-- MillerCoors announced Monday morning it is closing its doors permanently next year.
The announcement was confirmed by Eden's Economic Director Michael Dougherty.
"It's probably the worst case scenario you could imagine because MillerCoors has been here for more than 30 years," he said. "They're a great corporate citizen."
In a news release, MillerCoors officials say they're closing the Eden plant because of significant overlap in distribution with the Shenandoah, Va. brewery, which is 200 miles away. This will affect 520 employees who work at the plant. MillerCoors says the Shenandoah plant is better suited geographically in relation to Northeast markets and is also the newest brewery in MillerCoors network.
Eden city officials say the announcement will mean the city's economy could take a major hit. And, Mayor Wayne Tuggle says it could also affect taxpayers.
"[MillerCoors uses] close to 900 million gallons of water a year," Tuggle said. "So, that's money that has to be taken up, so – we have to get it some way. And, the only way you can get that is to raise water and sewer rates."
MillerCoors is the city's second largest employer, behind Morehead Memorial Hospital. Tuggle also says the company has a $78 million payroll.
"That's money that's taken out of the economy right off the bat," he said.
Over the next 12 months production from the Eden plant will be transitioned to breweries in Fort Worth, Texas, Albany, Ga., Trenton, Ohio, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
MillerCoors released this statement about the 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," said Chief Integrated Supply Chain Officer Fernando Palacios.
Since the creation of MillerCoors seven years ago, volume has declined by nearly 10 million barrels, the company says. This volume loss is due to a variety of factors, including economic challenges, an explosion of choice and fragmentation within the beer business, and a dramatic change in the way consumers engage with brands. As a result of declining volume, MillerCoors breweries are operating at an increasingly inefficient capacity. While MillerCoors is taking steps to strengthen its overall portfolio to drive long-term growth in volume and share, continued volume declines are expected each of the next few years.
"We take great pride in supporting the communities where we live and work," Palacios said. "We've been proud to be part of the Eden community since we shipped our first products in 1978. We will work with community leaders to make sure we continue to support the community while we are brewing beer in Eden."
According to the MillerCoors' website, the facility opened in 1978 and was the first brewery to produce Miller Genuine Draft back in 1986. It has annual brewing capacity of 9 million barrels.
Local businesses are wondering what this means for the rest of Eden's economy.
"It's going to take a lot of money out that people would spend to eat in my restaurant or go to shops you know or build homes, buy cars," Terry Wood said, co-owner of Dick's Drive-In in Eden.
Wood said Miller means a lot to the small town.
"I was deeply saddened. It was early this morning and someone came in and said that they had saw it on Facebook that Miller was closing and I was hoping it was just a rumor," Wood said.
This is a developing story, stay with WFMY News 2 for updates.
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