Nov 11, 2024, 10:20 AM CST
Chippewa Falls will soon lose a community staple in Leinenkugel’s Brewery, and over 50 employees will need to start looking for new jobs.
Last week, Molson Coors announced that it would be closing the historic Leinenkugel’s Brewery in Chippewa Falls and moving their production operations to their main facility in Milwaukee. The brewery had been part of the community for over 150 years. The Leinie’s Lodge just next door to the brewery and the Pilot Brewery will remain open.
According to a WEAU report, Chippewa Falls Mayor Greg Hoffman says the soon to be laid off employees should have no trouble finding new work in the region. He says the area currently has an abundance of manufacturing jobs. The brewery is scheduled to officially close on January 17th.
In a statement following the announcement, Teamsters Local 200 and 662 said they were doing everything in their power to fight for and protect their members’ rights. Sharing the sentiment from local officials, they said it’s a tragedy that Molson Coors decided to close the doors to the facility that has stood for so many decades.
At this point in the brewery’s history, the local facility was only producing about 25% of the company’s products. The company is also closing a brewery in Milwaukee to centralize production operations.
In a statement of his own, former company president Dick Leinenkugel noted that the brewery had operated for over 157 years with six generations of Leinenkugel family management. The facility also saw multiple generations of workers from the local area. Residents say they were blindsided by the news and are disappointed to lose part of the fabric of their community.
