Anheuser-Busch Will Lay Off 142 Oakland Employees Following Distribution Business Sale
Anheuser-Busch plans to lay off 142 employees following its agreement to sell its Oakland distribution business to Markstein Sales Co. and Matagrano Inc.
Both companies plan to move into the warehouse located at 8380 Pardee Drive in September when the sale is complete. The layoffs will take effect at the same time.
News of the sale was first reported by BrewBound. Markstein will absorb the Oakland side of Anheuser-Busch’s operations, while Matagrano will take on Anheuser-Busch’s Santa Clara and San Jose operations, as reported by The San Francisco Business Times.
Anheuser Busch filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification with the state of California on July 7 ahead of the layoffs.
Developer Westcore purchased the Pardee Drive warehouse in May 2020 for $40.5M.
Industrial space in the East Bay is experiencing unfettered demand. A Q2 CBRE report pegged vacancy at 2.3% in Oakland. Other parts of the East Bay are even tighter, including Berkeley, where the vacancy rate is less than 1%.
Though there are signs that the industrial market could soften, industry executives are quick to point out this is only in comparison to 2021’s record growth.
