Nestlé to Shutter Freehold, N.J., Instant Coffee Plant

Nov. 16, 2023

75-year-old plant will shut down and be decommissioned over the next few months, Nestlé confirms.

Nestlé will close its 75-year-old Freehold, N.J., coffee plant, the company confirmed to local news outlets. Friday will be the last day of work for approximately half of the plant’s 225 workers, with the remaining employees remaining on to decommission the facility over the next few months, the reports said.

Word had spread in May that Nestlé was planning to shutter the plant, and workers had rallied in June to save the facility. At the time, the ultimate fate of the plant had not been announced, nor had a timeline been shared.

Nestlé told local news outlets that production from the Freehold facility would be transferred to company facilities in Mexico and Brazil. It also said it was helping support employees’ transitions to their next jobs in the Freehold area. The 440,000-square-foot facility opened in 1948, producing instant coffee products and becoming a landmark for locals for many years, the report said.

Nestlé said the closure was brought about due to the facility’s age and limited operations flexibility.

About the Author

Andy Hanacek | Senior Editor

Andy Hanacek has covered meat, poultry, bakery and snack foods as a B2B editor for nearly 20 years, and has toured hundreds of processing plants and food companies, sharing stories of innovation and technological advancement throughout the food supply chain. In 2018, he won a Folio:Eddie Award for his unique "From the Editor's Desk" video blogs, and he has brought home additional awards from Folio and ASBPE over the years. In addition, Hanacek led the Meat Industry Hall of Fame for several years and was vice president of communications for We R Food Safety, a food safety software and consulting company.