Operations will fizzle out at Coca-Cola’s only Hawaii bottling plant by the end of January when it shuts down for good.
The 65-year-old Mapunapuna bottling plant will not have a successor, and instead, the Coca-Cola franchise owner will focus on distribution and build a warehouse in Kapolei.
Twenty-five employees will be affected by the closure, according to the company.
“The decision to close our production facility in Hawaii is part of a strategic optimization plan for The Odom Corporation’s beverage businesses in the state,” said Joe Carter, vice president and general manager of Coca-Cola Bottling of Hawaii — The Odom Corporation, reading from a prepared statement.
The plant “reached its operational life, and significant upgrades would be required to continue production,” he said.
It will be permanently decommissioned at the end of January and everything will be moved to the Campbell Industrial area, Carter said.
The Bellevue, Wash.-based corporation’s website says its mission is to market and distribute premium beverages in six states, namely Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming and Washington. They include hundreds of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, including Hawaii brands.
Carter said the company did not plan to go public with the news at this time, wanting to prioritize informing its employees and associates first, but responded to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s inquiry.
“While production will transition to other locations, we will continue employing local team members in sales, distribution and service, delivering the same high quality beverages our communities know and love.”
He said the 25 employees affected by the closure — some of whom have worked at the plant for over 30 years — will be offered jobs in other parts of the organization on Oahu.
“We operate across the whole state,” Carter said, adding it has distribution centers in Hilo, Kona, Kauai and Molokai, but no other production site.
Additionally, the Odom website lists a Maui warehouse and an Aiea warehouse. Its Honolulu warehouse and the bottling plant are located at 949 Mapunapuna St.
“As part of this long- term investment in Hawaii’s future, we are opening a state of the art warehouse in the Kapolei West Business Park on Oahu, providing a modern, efficient hub to better serve our customers,” Carter said. This substantial investment by Odom represents our long-term view of partnering with our customers and the consumers of Hawaii.
He declined to say what city or state the Coke that will be shipped to Hawaii will be produced in, but said that the Coca-Cola concentrate used in the processing is the same everywhere.
Carter also declined to say whether Hawaii water was used in the making of the locally bottled Coke.
Carter said Odom bought the plant 10 years ago from Coca-Cola. The Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs’ records show that the company says its purpose is wholesale beverage distribution.
In 2007, Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Hawaii turned 100, and it was bestowed a certificate by the state House of Representatives, which provided a recitation of its history.
It said the Coca-Cola Company, after its acquisition by Atlanta businessman Asa Chandler from inventor Dr. John Strythe Pemberton in 1888, expanded throughout the United States, Cuba and Panama, then to Hawaii in 1907 through Hawaiian Soda Works.
In 1923, Rycroft Arctic Soda Works bought the local bottler, and delivered the beverage by motor trucks from its Sheridan Street facility.
It opened a new bottling plant in 1941 on Keawe Street.
In 1937, the business changed its name to the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Hawaii.
Then it established in 1967 a new facility on Mapunapuna Road. It had grown to 275 employees serving Hawaii island, Kauai, Lanai, Molokai and Oahu, with earnings of $118.3 million in sales.
