Dive Brief:
- Google has bought a former Gatorade plant in Pryor, Okla., for $24.5 million.
- The sale comes just five years after PepsiCo built the facility for a cost o f$180 million.
- The plant closed in 2010, and 108 people lost their jobs.
- Google hasn't publicly said what it will do with the plant, but it already operates a data center next door and is adding a second building where it is expected to add about 50 jobs.
Dive Insight:
We had to do a double-take when we first read this news. PepsiCo opened the plant five years ago. Then the company closed it in 2010, citing a drop in demand for sports drinks. Assuming those dates are right, it means only about two years passed from the time the plant opened until it closed. Even allowing for a year or two for construction, very little time passed from when PepsiCo started to build and when it decided to close. Could the sports drink market be declining that quickly? Possibly. But it's just as likely that something went wrong with PepsiCo's forecasting and planning functions.
