After a 65-year run, Hawaiʻi's lone Coca-Cola bottling plant is putting a lid on operations.
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser broke the news of the Mapunapuna plant closure, which was confirmed by the vice president and general manager of Coca-Cola Bottling of Hawaiʻi, Joe Carter.
"The decision to close our production facility in Hawaiʻi is part of a strategic optimization plan for The Odom Corporation's beverage businesses in the state," Carter said in a prepared statement. The exec added that the facility "reached its operational life, and significant upgrades would be required to continue production."
The closure at the end of January affects 25 employees, but efforts are being made to relocate them within Odom's operations across Hawaiʻi. The overall plan for the company to shift its focus to distribution and marketing of Coca-Cola products in Hawaiʻi.
"We will continue employing local team members in sales, distribution and service, delivering the same high quality beverages our communities know and love," Carter said.
While it's encouraging to hear that Odom is looking to provide other opportunities for affected employees, plant closures and shifting job responsibilities provide challenges for locals. It's unclear how seamless transitioning to new roles and worksites will actually be for longtime employees.
Odom did announce plans to build a new warehouse in Kapolei that it said will "better serve" customers, and reflects their commitment to the Hawaiian market.
A few questions were unanswered after the announcement. Carter didn't specify where Coke would emanate from in this new arrangement, and he didn't reveal whether the bottling facility used water from Hawaiʻi. He did assure that the Coca-Cola concentrate would be unchanged.
The plant's closure continues a trend for Coca-Cola of canceling new facilities and shuttering existing ones. The rationale for these moves is Coke's new strategy to prioritize marketing, distribution, and other objectives while outsourcing tasks such as bottling.
While those moves might be good for the brand's bottom line, they come at the cost of locals who rely on the facilities for job opportunities.
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Zooming out, another concerning trend with Coca-Cola is its world-leading contribution to plastic pollution. While it's unclear if the bottle plant's closure will affect the company's troubled environmental record positively or negatively, transporting more product from Odom's facilities on the mainland to Hawaiʻi likely won't help things.
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