North Carolina – MillerCoors announced on Monday that its facility in Eden, the primary one to supply Miller Real Draft, will be shut down by September 2016 because of a long time decline in sales.

MillerCoors’s spokesman Marty Maloney said that the plant closing will mean that 520 people will be laid off, but the company will take on the responsibility to provide workforce training and job search assistance.

The Eden brewery produced 7.1 million barrels of beer underneath the Blue Moon, Coors Mild, Miller Lite and Miller Excessive Life brands since its opening in 1978. By locating at about 200 miles from the newest MillerCoors brewery in Elkton, the proximity of the two rushed the company to make a decision.

MillerCoors-Eden
Image by Buckley Air Force Base

The company is all about innovating to remain relevant to its customers in a wide range market where non-craft domestic beer still represents about 74% of taxable beer production last year according to Brewers Association.

For a city of only 15,000 habitats, the closing of a great employer like MillerCoors – which stood as one of the city’s greatest employer’s for 37 years – might destabilize the city’s economy. But certainly its two major suppliers are also likely to feel the impact.

Ball Corp., with 183 workers, makes all of the brewery’s bottles and cans and the Fleetmaster Express location in Eden is a major MillerCoors shipper. Meanwhile, Milwaukee is likely to take on the jobs dismissed from North Carolina.

County Manager Lance Metzler released a statement that said all of the company’s employees were sent home for the day:

“Our hearts, thoughts and prayers go out to these employees as we all come to grips that this outstanding corporate citizen will officially close September, 2016. We are especially concerned for the hardworking employees at the brewery,”

Source: Miller Coors