Northampton Coca Cola plant to close in December, 175 layoffs expected

by Ryan Feyre and Trent Levakis | Jun 25, 2026 | Hampshire County, Local News, Northampton

A truck leaves the Coca Cola bottling plant at 45 Industrial Drive, Northampton, in 2021. The plant will officially close on Dec. 15.
Reminder Publishing file photo

NORTHAMPTON — The Coca-Cola plant on Industrial Drive in Northampton will officially close on Dec. 15, marking the end of an era where the company delayed its departure multiple times over the last couple of years.

According to a recent state filing, 175 employees will be terminated because of the closure, and layoffs will officially start on Aug. 15, according to Habib Chaudry, the Northampton plant manager.

Chaudry said “it is possible that one or more employees will remain employed for a limited time — no more than 60 days — after the facility is closed to assist with administrative tasks related to the closing of the facility.” The workers are not represented by a union, he said.

The announcement comes after the plant said it would close its facility in 2023 after serving in the city since the 1950s. Northampton DPW Director Donna LaScaleia said at a City Council meeting in the spring that the announcement of Coca-Cola’s closure as “devastating” for the city because the company represented 25% of the city’s water and sewer enterprises. The initial announcement led to the implementation of new base rate fee structures in both water and sewer enterprises, which began on July 1, 2023. Since this change was made, costs have shifted to residents, with the average residential household seeing a $128 annual increase to their water bill and a $115 annual increase to the sewer bill.

According to previous Reminder Publishing reporting, LaScaleia explained that FY22 was the last year of stable operations at the Coca-Cola plant; by FY23, usage began tapering. When building the budget for FY24, LaScaleia explained that the DPW began anticipating $0 in revenue from Coca-Cola to the budget, per its announcement of departure. The goal has been to shift the lost revenue to base charges to remain at a consistent revenue level.

In March, the City Council voted to maintain the same water and sewer rates that were set over the last couple fiscal years for most users in Northampton. LaScaleia said the new base rate fee structures and the city’s ability to maintain those structures has allowed the city to successfully remain at a consistent revenue level as Coca-Cola has greatly diminished its operations.

“We shifted their lost revenue quite successfully … All we were trying to do is make up for their lost revenue in the best way possible with the least terrible impact to the rest of the city,” LaScaleia said.

Before Coca-Cola announced this month that it is officially closing in December, the company was working in diminished capacity. As of FY26, they accounted for 14% of the city’s water usage, compared to 25% during the height of its operations.

Reminder Publishing attempted to reach Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra’s office for comment about the closure a few days after the announcement but did not hear back as of press time. At a March council meeting, Sciarra expressed frustration about the amount of times the plant has delayed its departure.

In her budget summary for fiscal year 2027, Sciarra said that she will “continue to work closely with our state and federal partners to advocate for a sale of the building to another user that will support our enterprise funds and contribute in a positive way to our city.”

State Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa backed those sentiments, stating that the focus of area officials will be to find another employer for the bottling facility, not just to replace the jobs, but to identify a buyer that uses high volumes of water.

“It is our great hope that Coca-Cola can continue to work with us and find a high-water user,” Sabadosa said following the closure announcement in June. “We’ve been trying to impress upon them that we need to find a high-water user now, not when the plant shuts down, and not have it become a warehouse.”

A Coca-Cola representative said in a statement that the company is “grateful to have been part of the Northampton community for many years.”