Okmulgee Coca-Cola Bottling Plant Closing

Hundreds of Coca-Cola employees, including many in Okmulgee will be looking for new jobs. 

This after Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages announced it will be closing its bottling plant in Okmulgee and consolidating operations with its Oklahoma City bottling facility.

In a statement, the company says their distribution facility in Okmulgee will remain open.

"While we are closing the manufacturing operations in Okmulgee, our Okmulgee distribution center’s frontline salespeople, drivers and merchandisers are not impacted."

In all, 246 jobs in both bottling plants will be affected.  

The company says the job reductions were necessary.

"While difficult, these changes are helping us create a faster, leaner and more agile organization to accelerate growth in the local marketplace.  We do not take decisions about job impacts lightly and are committed to treating our people with dignity, fairness and respect throughout this process."

The company says the consolidation will happen beginning in March.