Fairfield Budweiser plant to close by February 2026, Anheuser-Busch says

By Cecilio Padilla

Fairfield’s longtime Budweiser plant will be closing early next year. City officials say they were informed by Anheuser-Busch about the impending closure on Thursday.

In a statement from Anheuser-Busch, the Fairfield facility is one of two that will be closed in 2026, along with a third being sold.

Full-time employees at the impacted facilities will be offered roles elsewhere, Anheuser-Busch stated.

“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 conducting a thorough review, 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,” the company stated.

According to the WARN report, the last day of operation for the Fairfield plant will be Feb. 22, 2026. A total of 238 employees will be impacted. 

Fairfield Mayor Catherine Moy stated that the city manager informed her Thursday morning of the plant’s impending closure.

“The impacts for us will be loss of local employment and impact to our water utility operations and revenue. I requested that they put me in touch with their real estate team so that we can promptly get to work on trying to find a potential reuse for the site,” Moy wrote in a post to her Facebook page regarding the closure.

“To be clear, I don’t think that will be an easy task given the large and highly specialized nature of the facility. I hope I’m wrong though,” Moy added.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office pushed back against claims that the state’s business environment contributed to the closure. 

“The company and the industry as a whole are experiencing profit declines, made worse by economic uncertainty and higher costs tied to President Trump’s tariff policies,” a representative from Newsom’s office stated.

The Fairfield Anheuser-Busch was opened in 1976 and sits on a prominent 170-acre site right off Interstate 80.