Dive Brief:
- Dr Pepper Snapple Group has submitted documents to the Texas Workforce Commission indicating that its warehouse and distribution center in Spring, Texas.
- The company plans to shutter operations within two weeks of Dec. 6 at 21500 Springwest Drive, though operations will be consolidated at another existing plant at 2400 Holly Hall in Houston.
- Chris Barnes, director of corporate communications at Dr Pepper Snapple, told the Houston Business Journal that 15 of the 18 workers directly affected by the closure will be offered work in Houston—though more than 100 workers, who he says are mostly mobile, do work at Spring.
Dive Insight:
This news came as Dr Pepper Snapple announced its Q3 2013 earnings results Wednesday. Sales of its Dr Pepper TEN 10-calorie product have been flat, and the company has run into similar problems as those seen by Coca-Cola and PepsiCo recently with U.S. soda consumption on the decline. Officially, however, the company credits this Spring closure to an effort to make its "delivery operations more seamless in the Houston area."