Gatorade: We Remain Committed To Pryor

By Chris Wright, News On 6

PRYOR, OK -- Production was temporarily shut down and 22 people were laid off at Pryor's Gatorade plant on Tuesday. It's the latest setback for Pryor's Mid-America Industrial Park.

The rest of the nearly 200 workers were told to go home and come back next week.

There was little activity at the Gatorade plant after its production shut-down Tuesday. Officials say the plant needed to take some time off after accumulating too much inventory. But the problem is also plaguing Gatorade's parent company Pepsico, which has announced plans to cut 3,300 positions nation-wide.

Meanwhile, jobs at the Mid-America Industrial Park continue to disappear.

In June, the Georgia Pacific paper plant closed, and 100 people were laid off. Officials say there is still a chance it may re-open.

Just last week, Labinal, the park's largest employer, announced plans to shut down. Its nearly 500 employees will be out of work by the end of the year.

Pryor is a town that relies on industrial jobs, and it has now lost hundreds of them within the past year.  But the Mid-America Industrial Park is confident that they will eventually be back.

"I've seen in 30 something years I've been up here, I've seen companies come and go.  That's just part of the life-cycle of an industrial park," said Industrial Park Administrator Sanders Mitchell.

Administrator Sanders Mitchell says his industrial park may be entering the downward part of that cycle, after a boom-period that featured the arrival of Google and Gatorade.

"The economy being what it is, it's got everyone really gun shy and goosey," said Mitchell.

As for Gatorade, it says the cuts are necessary to ensure its future growth, and it remains committed to the Pryor community.

The News On 6 did talk to a Gatorade employee who did not want to go on camera. She did not lose her job, but says she is still worried about being laid off.

She says many workers there left other companies to work at Gatorade, and everyone is now worried about their future there.

Gatorade released the following statement:

PepsiCo (Gatorade's parent company) announced a number of productivity measures that touch all of our divisions in markets across the globe and include corporate offices as well as plant locations.  These actions will affect our Gatorade manufacturing facility in Pryor in that 22 salaried positions will be eliminated.  Any time we have to make tough decisions that affect our people, we do it with considerable thought and in as supportive a way as possible.  We are meeting with the associates affected and outlining outplacement support services, severance benefits and benefit continuation. These actions are necessary to ensure the future growth of our business.  We continue to remain committed to our facility and the community in Pryor. 

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