Laid off from Constellation Brands.

What Constellation Brands layoffs have meant for employees

What you can find out about a Constellation layoff depends on where it happened. The California cuts left state notices with dates, counties and job counts, three since 2024, all filed under the name Constellation Brands, Inc., which is how they appear in our WARN tracker too. The Rochester cuts left company statements, like the one Constellation gave News10NBC, and the Rochester Business Journal's yearly list of local employers. That split decides how much of a layoff shows up in public at all. A California notice pins a layoff to a county and a date, while the Rochester cuts come down to what the company and the local paper have said.

Mission Bell's layoffs grew out of work Constellation was doing for another company. After it sold a batch of cheaper brands to Gallo, it kept producing, cellaring and storing Gallo's boxed wine Black Box under transitional supply contracts, and by January 2026 the two companies had agreed to end them, by the San Francisco Chronicle's account. The winery itself dates to 1919 and covers 2 million square feet, one of Constellation's biggest California production sites. Constellation told employees about the cuts in January, and a county official put the job losses at more than 200 before the state notice was filed, KMPH reported. The Gallo contract was to end March 31, according to an employee email the station obtained, and the company said the change would affect a number of roles there while it adjusted operations for its own future production needs.

Constellation framed its June 2025 sale to The Wine Group as a way out of mainstream wine and into labels priced above $15 a bottle, the Press Democrat reported. As recently as 2024 the Quarry Lake winery near Sonoma produced Meiomi among other labels, and Constellation sold Meiomi to The Wine Group the next June, the paper's May report noted. The site was Ravenswood's old headquarters, and Gallo had bought the Ravenswood brand itself in 2021 as part of an $810 million deal. By July the paper called the closed site an excess production facility and its closing a cost-cutting move. The Ukiah notice of 2024, the earliest Constellation filing in the tracker, was a closure too, and it came before the June 2025 sale to The Wine Group.

The restructuring behind the Rochester cuts is easier to measure in dollars than in people. Its expected cost was $130 million before tax, half for employee terminations and half for consulting and other costs, according to Constellation's quarterly report. The bulk of the work was finished within the year that closed on February 28, 2026, the filing says. In the six months to August 31, 2026, restructuring spending was $5.5 million, all of it consulting and other costs. In January 2026 the finance chief still called cost savings a priority, the restructuring included, the Business Journal reported. Constellation hadn't filed a WARN notice with New York for the Rochester layoffs, News10NBC reported.

To match a California notice to a site, California's WARN report gives each one's county and street address and the label the state put on it, a permanent layoff or a permanent closure. For Mission Bell workers, Madera County's supervisor pointed to the county's Workforce Assistance Center, which he said offers free job search help, resume assistance and skills training, KMPH reported. Assemblywoman Esmeralda Soria's office said it stood ready to help affected workers with transition assistance and EDD benefits. Our California unemployment benefits page goes over that state's filing steps, and New York unemployment benefits is the counterpart for anyone cut in Rochester.

A sourced history of Constellation Brands layoffs

• April 2026, Quarry Lake Winery closing near Sonoma

  A state notice dated April 24 set a June 25 closing for the former Ravenswood headquarters and listed seven layoffs, five cellar workers, a mechanic and a foreman, the Press Democrat reported.

• January 2026, Mission Bell Winery layoffs in Madera

  Constellation tied the layoffs to its Gallo supply contracts coming to an end, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Its February 3 notice in EDD's report listed 212 permanent layoffs, effective April 3.

• November 2025, Rochester layoffs in the company restructuring

  Constellation laid off part of its Rochester workforce in a company-wide restructuring, the Rochester Business Journal reported. It told News10NBC a limited number of local positions were affected; an IT employee's unverified account called it the third and largest round of 2025.

• April 2025, company-wide restructuring announced

  Constellation announced a company-wide review of how it runs the business in early April, to fit its new focus and scale after the sale to The Wine Group, it told News10NBC. Employee termination costs under the initiative reached $62.0 million, its quarterly report shows.

What to do if you're laid off from Constellation Brands

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Constellation Brands's biggest hubs: California. 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 Constellation Brands's hub states run: California, 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.