🏭 After 75 years, the iconic Anheuser-Busch Newark brewery is set to close in early 2026.
👷♂️ Full-time staff are being offered transfers with relocation aid — or severance if they decline.
📦 The site will be sold to Goodman Group, which plans industrial and logistics redevelopment.
NEWARK — After 75 years as a landmark across from Newark Liberty Airport, the Anheuser-Busch brewery would be closing up by early next year.
The brewery first opened in 1951 — second oldest only to Anheuser-Busch’s flagship brewery in St. Louis, Missouri.
It has made and packaged a number of the company’s beer products, including Budweiser, Bud Light, Rolling Rock, Busch, Natural Light and King Cobra.
Budweiser brewery in Newark is closing –
Budweiser brewery in Newark is closing – Cans of Budweiser and Bud Light at a store (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Company cites nationwide upgrades and facility consolidation
The changes were decided after five years and nearly $2 billion in updates and improvements at the company’s 100 facilities across the country.
“We have decided to sell our Newark, NJ facility to the Goodman Group and to close our facilities in Fairfield, CA and Merrimack, NH in early 2026,” an Anheuser-Busch spokesperson said in a statement to New Jersey 101.5.
Production would shift from the spots in New Jersey, New Hampshire and California to “other U.S. facilities,” and all 475 full-time employees were being offered full-time roles elsewhere in U.S. operations, with new skills training and money toward relocation.
Employees that choose not to accept a transfer would receive severance packages.
Read More: NJ layoffs near 10,000 for year as workers cut at White Claw brewery
Budweiser brewery in Newark is closing (Google Maps)
Budweiser brewery in Newark is closing (Google Maps)
Nine major Anheuser-Busch breweries will remain nationwide
Of Anheuser-Busch’s 100 U.S. facilities, 12 are breweries.
The newly announced closures will leave nine major breweries remaining:
🔸Baldwinsville, New York
🔸Columbus, Ohio
🔸Williamsburg, Virginia
🔸St. Louis, Missouri
🔸Cartersville, Georgia
🔸Jacksonsville, Florida
🔸Houston, Texas
🔸Fort Collins, Colorado
🔸Los Angeles, California
The next closest brewery to Newark is about a five-mile drive to upstate New York, north of Syracuse.
Budweiser brewery in Newark is closing in sale to Goodman Group (Google Maps)
Budweiser brewery in Newark is closing in sale to Goodman Group (Google Maps)
Goodman Group to redevelop Newark beer plant into logistics hub
Goodman Group plans to repurpose the Newark site for industrial manufacturing and logistics uses.
Last year, the same company bought the iconic Jersey City location of the former New York Daily News printing facility.
“We are enthusiastic about the Northern New Jersey market, which remains robust in terms of the underlying demand for modern warehousing and distribution space,” Anthony Rozic, Chief Executive Officer North America said, adding they were “actively pursuing” other sites in the area.
Biggest NJ company layoffs announced in 2025
In the first quarter of 2025 alone, roughly a dozen New Jersey employers announced over 3,000 layoffs. By October, the number of layoffs announced was beyond 11,000.
Gallery Credit: Erin Vogt
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