Laid off from Anheuser-Busch.

What Anheuser-Busch layoffs have meant for employees

Brewery workers at Anheuser-Busch had something the company's office and distributor staff didn't, a public promise. During the takeover, InBev chief executive Carlos Brito published an open letter saying he wouldn't close any of the company's dozen breweries, and VinePair says he didn't before stepping down in 2021. Union brewery jobs sat outside that first December's salaried cuts too. That history is why the December 2025 plan stands apart from everything before it. The plants had outlasted every earlier round we can document, and this time the company paired the loss of a local job with an offer of one somewhere else.

If you were a full-time employee at Fairfield, Merrimack or Newark, the company's offer came down to moving or leaving. Stipends and training were promised to those who could relocate and a severance package to anyone who couldn't, according to The Cabinet Press, and the Teamsters said in a statement NJBIZ carried that members' employment, wages and seniority stay protected when a brewery closes. That protection is worth a lot to someone free to move and less to someone whose family, house and commute are tied to Merrimack, since the protected job sits at another plant. If you're offered both a transfer and severance, the stipend, the cost of living near the new plant and what your seniority buys there all belong in the same sum as the severance figure.

Before the brewery closings, the notices that stand out came from distribution, as Anheuser-Busch handed company-owned wholesale operations to outside distributors. A sale like that can produce a layoff notice and a job offer at the same moment. The 2021 Hawaii letter announced a closing while leaving any offer from the buyer untouched, and it treated severance from Anheuser-Busch as its own item, offset against a state dislocated worker allowance, and said an eligible employee would receive the greater of the two. Medford ran differently. The buyer wasn't expected to keep the warehouse, so a job with it could mean moving or a longer commute, and the local told the Boston Globe it had presented a demand for severance. If your distributor is being sold, the seller's severance and the buyer's offer may be two separate questions with two separate answers.

Salaried staff have the most detailed terms on record. The company's 2008 announcement expected about $197 million in costs from that round, most of it severance and the rest pension enhancements required because the terminations fell within three years of the change of control. Those enhancements belonged to that window, so they say little about a cut today. That announcement and the 2021 Hawaii letter each used age and service, but each spoke for its own round and its own employees, so neither sets a formula for anyone laid off since. The 2023 round, as Fox News described it, left plant and driver jobs out as well.

Anheuser-Busch's notices don't all carry one name, which matters if you're trying to place your own site. Filers include Anheuser-Busch, LLC, Anheuser-Busch Commercial Strategy, LLC, AB One and state sales companies such as Anheuser-Busch Sales of Hawaii, so a search of our WARN tracker under those names gets closer than the brand alone. Dates can split as well. Fairfield's WARN report, as CBS Sacramento described it, gave one date for the wind-down to begin and a later one for the last day, so the date in a headline may not be the one that applies to you.

A sourced history of Anheuser-Busch layoffs

• December 2025, Fairfield and Merrimack closings, Newark sale

  Anheuser-Busch said it would sell Newark to the Goodman Group and, in early 2026, close both breweries. A spokesperson's statement in The Cabinet Press offered every full-time worker a role elsewhere. California's WARN report, per CBS Sacramento, listed 238 Fairfield employees and a February 22 last day.

• August 2024, Medford and Canton distribution closings

  A state filing listed 193 Medford jobs as Quality Beverage took over Massachusetts distribution, and the Boston Globe reported 63 layoffs set for October 15 in Canton, Ohio. A Teamsters Local 122 official said Medford workers weren't offered severance.

• July 2023, U.S. corporate layoffs

  The company said the layoffs would reach less than 2% of the U.S. workforce, in corporate roles at offices including St. Louis, New York and Los Angeles, and leave brewery, warehouse and driver jobs alone. A letter described by Fox News promised severance pay, six months of health insurance and job search help.

• August 2021, Hawaii distribution sale to Odom

  An August 30 letter told Anheuser-Busch Sales of Hawaii staff the business would close because of the sale to the Odom Corporation, with jobs ending on or after October 29. It said the notice didn't revoke any Odom job offer.

• December 2020, Colorado distribution layoffs in Eagle Rock sale

  A WARN notice quoted by KDVR said all employees at four facilities would be permanently laid off around December 4, 220 in Denver, 71 in Loveland, 59 in Colorado Springs and 50 in Littleton.

• July 2020, Riverside distribution facility layoffs

  A California notice in our WARN tracker listed 222 jobs at the company's Riverside distribution facility, with an October 2 effective date.

• 2009, Mt. Vernon, Illinois wholesale site closing

  Illinois recorded a closing of 133 workers at the company's beer wholesale site in Mt. Vernon, a notice held in our WARN tracker.

• December 2008, salaried cuts after the InBev purchase

  About 1,400 salaried positions went in the plan FoodIngredientsFirst carried, three-quarters of them at the St. Louis headquarters, plus 415 contractor jobs. Severance followed age and years of service, as did pension benefits, and union brewery jobs were left out.

What to do if you're laid off from Anheuser-Busch

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Anheuser-Busch's biggest hubs: California, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Missouri. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
• Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what Anheuser-Busch's hub states run: California, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Missouri, and every other state is here.
• Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
• Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
• Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.