It’s an uncertain time for businesses right now (and for consumers as well!). It’s normal to see ebbs and flows in business, and right now, we might be seeing a bit of an ebb for PepsiCo, the owner of Pepsi and many other common snack and beverage brands.
Unfortunately, these ebbs drastically impact the lives of employees when a layoff is a result. This has sadly been the case for hundreds of employees over the past several months…
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And let’s face it – while often there’s a perfectly valid reason for closures and layoffs — inefficiencies in the plant design (look for older buildings – often they lack up-to-date technology or even the capacity for it without a significant and expensive remodel), adjusting supply chains to better meet market needs, what have you…
Layoffs are objectively miserable for the workers involved, and the loss of a plant can devastate a local community.
Here are six affected factories:
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Some PepsiCo workers in Ohio had a bleak Christmas last year.
On December 28, 2024, PepsiCo ended its production operations at its Cincinnati, Ohio, plant. In its Workers Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) notice to the 136 impacted employees, PepsiCo said it is “providing information to affected employees about other job openings and actively working to place them at nearby facilities”.
Workers were notified of the layoffs on October 28, so they had two months’ notice, exactly the amount required per the California WARN Act.
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While production operations are ending at the facility, PepsiCo says they will continue “operating a scaled warehouse” there.
Full statement from PepsiCo:
While manufacturing was scaled back in Cincinnati, that location isn’t closed for business completely. PepsiCo issued a statement saying, “We are optimizing our manufacturing network, and as a result, we have stopped production at our Cincinnati facility. We will continue operating a scaled warehouse at this location.”
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On the same day as the Cincinnati closure, 127 PepsiCo workers across the country in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, were experiencing a similar fate.
The 127 laid-off workers were a mix of production, warehouse, and transport employees, and had also been given two months’ notice to secure other job opportunities.
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A little earlier in the year, on October 28th, Pepsi had already announced plans to close a bottling plant in Chicago, wiping out 150 good union jobs in one fell swoop.
This was another older facility (60 years old) with what the company described as “physical limitations.”
And, sure, fair enough.
But this points to the deeper problem, right?
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The closure in Georgia is smaller than the other plants and impacted fewer than 50 employees. The details on the closure of the Atlanta bottling plant are hard to come by, but we do know the closure happened later last year, similar to the other closures.
And every lost job tells its own story of difficulty and resilience.
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Things weren’t looking great for the 287 PepsiCo employees in Liberty, New York, earlier this year.
In May 2025, layoffs began for workers at a PopCorners plant. (PopCorners are basically popped versions of tortilla chips, and come in several flavors like White Cheddar and Kettle Corn.)
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PepsiCo issued a statement regarding the closure of the PopCorners plant and layoffs for the nearly 300 employees: “This plant has played a vital role in producing our beloved PopCorners brand, but the pace of growth for this product line paired with broader industry pace of growth has made it difficult to sustain the site’s long-term viability.”
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Frito-Lay, a subsidiary of PepsiCo, manufactures popular chips like Cheetos, Tostitos, Fritos, and Lay’s. The Frito-Lay plant in Rancho Cucamonga, California, has been running for 55 years and employs around 480 people.
The good news is that the Rancho Cucamonga location will continue to operate its warehouse, distribution, fleet, and transportation teams, so not all of those 480 people will be impacted by the layoffs.
It’s unclear exactly when the layoffs were to take place, but the news was released in June 2025, so if we look at the trends from previous closures, it’s safe to assume it could take place roughly 60 days later…
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Some point to nonstellar earrings in 2024 as a precipitating factor for all of the closures. While PepsiCo hasn’t announced the official reasons for all of the layoffs, we can do some speculating given all of the economic turbulence over the past couple of years.
Inflation. While inflation is slowly improving (down to 2.67% from 2.97% last year), the sweet spot for inflation is considered to be closer to 2%. This raises the cost of business and trickles down to higher costs for the consumers.
Tariffs: Trump’s tariffs aren’t breaking news by this time, but they certainly impact the costs for PepsiCo. A 25% tariff on aluminum raises the cost of cans for PepsiCo products significantly.
Efficiency: PepsiCo is working to streamline its operations to reduce costs and become more efficient.
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Rocky earnings? PepsiCo’s earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter ending March 31, 2025, were $1.33, a 10.14% decline year-over-year. Compare this to the 5.95% EPS INCREASE from 2023-2024, and that’s quite a contrast in trends, and not in a good way.
Consumer spending: Consumers are holding on to their money a little bit tighter with economic uncertainty and the increased cost of living. Some of the first things to go when budgets are tighter are non-necessities, like soda and snack foods…
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News recently broke about another plant closure scheduled later this year on September 27th.
According to PepsiCo’s WARN notice, one of its plants in Detroit, Michigan, will discontinue its production, maintenance and transport operations. However, PepsiCo says its warehouse, fleet, delivery, sales, and field-service technician teams will continue to operate at the Detroit location.
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Between the end of 2024 and now, PepsiCo has laid off hundereds of employees throughout six different locations nationwide — and it’s not over yet.
Some of the locations are still operational with fewer employees, which supports the fact that PepsiCo is working to streamline operations to help reduce costs versus shuttering the locations permanently.
What do you think of all of the closures and layoffs recently (and not just with Pepsi)? Let me know in the comments!
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I’m sorry to see that Pepsi will be closing plants I would say Trump is the problem
he is causing everything he came into office by stealing it he didn’t win the votes now he is
causing so much chaos and starving kids and adults I just say how much he has taken from the
voters and he wants to starve the people and hurt the people that’s his goal what is he doing with all the money he is getting from the tax’s payers other than building all these hotels and golf course now I’m afraid he going to take everyone in the US their citizen ship away he going to try and I believe the Supreme court will let him.
You big Baby, if you would have red and fact checked you would have found out they are closing some plants because they are consolidating with sales are down. Nothing to do with Trump. You Trump Haters can hate Tump, just get your fact straight. Read this, March 31, 2025, were $1.33, a 10.14% decline year-over-year. Compare this to the 5.95% EPS INCREASE from 2023-2024, and that’s quite a contrast in trends, and not in a good way.