Emporia’s Pepsi warehouse at 12th Avenue and Industrial Road will be closed after the first of the year. About 20 jobs will be affected.
Amy Polacko, spokeswoman for The Pepsi Bottling Group in Somers, N.Y., confirmed Tuesday that the warehouse will be closing. She said about a quarter of the 20 employees affected will stay in the Emporia area, performing the same duties they are now. The rest of the employees have been given the opportunity to work out of Wichita, Polacko said.
“The most important thing is that our commitment to our customers is going to be stronger than ever,” Polacko said. She added that currently the Emporia area is served out of two warehouses. The change will consolidate it to one. “This is simply a matter of consolidating operations and streamlining the area. We are simply going to be storing products in another warehouse.”
Polacko said the Wichita warehouse has more space than Emporia’s.
“Using the Wichita warehouse allows us to keep our growing number of products in one place,” she said.