Consolidation costs 40 jobs in Austintown

Staff report

AUSTINTOWN

Nearly 40 warehouse employees at the Superior Beverage Group facilities on Victoria Road will lose their jobs as the company consolidates warehouse operations at a new state-of-the-art facility in Glenwillow, a Cleveland suburb.

An additional 60 merchandisers, salespeople and drivers will remain at the Austintown location.

The company announced Saturday that the new facility will consolidate warehouse operations from five Northeast Ohio locations, providing improved access and service to customers and suppliers. An opening date hasn’t been set.

The announcement came after the members of Teamsters Local 377 ratified a combination contract extension/new pact that gives them pay raises and a five-year agreement for drivers, sales associates and merchandisers, the company said.

Joe Mosbrook, a company spokesman, said the Austintown employees knew the consolidation was coming. The new agreement allows Austintown operations to continue working through this year and gives those warehouse employees losing their jobs pay raises and severance packages, he said.

Details of the contract weren’t released by the company, and Teamsters Local 377 officials couldn’t be reached for comment.

The company said that 37 Austintown warehouse positions will be eliminated by the fourth quarter of this year. Those workers will be given job-placement assistance.

“Our goal is to help all of those displaced employees find new work before we transition some of the operations to Glenwillow,” said Joe McHenry, executive vice president.

Superior Beverage, with facilities in six Ohio municipalities, has increased its work force by more than 200 over the past five years and expects a similar rate of growth going forward, McHenry said.

The company now has about 600 employees and is one of the largest beverage distributors in Ohio, serving more than 12,000 retailers in 33 counties.