The closed distribution facility in east Oakland. 2023 Google Maps image.
California-based Peet’s Coffee is closing the large east Oakland distribution center and warehouse where an employee was killed following a roof collapse earlier this year.
According to a public filing with the state’s Employment Development Department, the closing of the facility at 650 85th Avenue, near the Oakland Coliseum, is affecting all of the site’s employees, who have since the collapse been moved to smaller facilities.
“This closure of operations is expected to be permanent and will impact 110 employees,” the company wrote.
All of the affected employees are being given the option to continue working for Peet’s at a new Peet’s distribution facility coming to Tracy, California, about an hour’s drive east of Oakland in San Joaquin County.
“All affected employees, who elected not to accept the offer to work in Tracy, have been notified of their separation dates and that this action will be permanent,” the company wrote in the filing, known as a WARN letter.
A Peet’s representative told SFGATE that employees not opting for relocation will be given a severance package. Layoffs are expected to take effect July 19.
Peet’s, which was founded in Berkeley in 1966, will maintain its corporate headquarters in Emeryville, while its primary production roastery will continue to operate in the city of Alameda.
The move to Tracy follows a roof collapse at the east Oakland facility that killed a 57-year-old longtime employee and injured another. The company described the event as devastating.
Peet’s is part of JDE Peet’s, a multinational coffee conglomerate on the Amsterdam exchange that is majority-owned by the German billionaire-owned firm JAB.
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