Merrimack Anheuser-Busch plant to close after 55 years

The Anheuser-Busch brewery on Daniel Webster highway will close in the company months after 55 years of operation in town.

The brewery plant is one of three the company owns that will close in early 2026 as part of a move to “update and modernize” U.S. manufacturing operations, a spokesman said. The other two are in New Jersey and California.

The company didn’t say how many employees in Merrimack will be affected by the closing, but last reports were that the Merrimack brewery employed 210.

The company employes about 475 workers at the three plants that are closing, the spokesman said. The displaced workers will be offered full-time work at the company’s other plants, which are in St. Louis, where Anheuser-Busch headquarters is located; Los Angeles; Houston; Columbus, Ohio; Jacksonville, Florida; Williamsburg, Virginia; Baldwinsville, New York; Fort Collins, Colorado; and Cartersville, Georgia.

Employees who accept the relocation offer will get a stipend and skills training at their new location, according to a source familiar with the details. Those not choosing to transfer will be offered severance packages and “other resources.”

Most of the workers at the plant are represented by Teamsters Local 633. A union spokesman did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

The Merrimack plant was built for $40 million and opened in June 1970 on nearly 300 acres between Route 3 and the Merrimack River, near the Nashua line. It employed about 400 when it first opened, and was the major Anheuser-Busch distribution hub for New England and the Northeast.

For many years, the Merrimack site was also the training center for the iconic Clydesdale horse teams. In 2019, the company relocated the Clydesdale training center to Missouri, near Anheuser-Busch’s St. Louis headquarters. The stables were dormant until this summer — they were fully cleaned out, renovated and painted as a new place to host events. The plant has long been a popular destination for tours, particularly when the Clydesdales are on-site.

The plant underwent an $11.3 million expansion in 2017 that was designed to accommodate the company’s new craft brewing partnerships.

Tom Jokerst, brewery general manager, said at the time that the expansion meant, “We are here to stay. We are happy to be in New Hampshire. This investment gives great stability to our team.”

A company spokesman last week said, “Over the last five years we have taken steps to update and modernize our U.S. manufacturing operations, investing nearly $2 billion in our 100 facilities across the country.”

After the company conducted “a thorough review,” it decided to close the Merrimack plant as well as one in Fairfield, California. It’s also selling its Newark, New Jersey, plant to The Goodman Group, a global data center.

Production will shift to Anheuser-Busch’s other U.S. facilities with the changes “enabling us to invest even more in our remaining operations and in our portfolio of growing, industry-leading brands.”

The company also closed a craft brewing plant in Portsmouth in April, relocating it to North Carolina. It combined brewing operations for the Craft Brew Alliance, which it had acquired in 2020.