PepsiCo Inc. recently announced that it will shut down the company's Gatorade plant in Pryor, Okla., after working for more than a year to keep it open. According to an article by The Oklahoman, the move will cause 108 people to lose their jobs.

The affected employees will receive three months and one week of full pay and benefits, as well as outplacement assistance from an unknown company (Visit http://outplacing.com to learn more) and counseling, which will be extended to employees' family members.

"As for most businesses, this has been a tough couple of years," PepsiCo Regional Spokesman Pat Burke said. "We worked very hard over the past year to keep the plant going. Unfortunately, in the end, based on the economic conditions, we determined we could not keep the plant open."

PepsiCo is closing the plant in an effort to keep Gatorade's overall manufacturing capacity in line with current market demands as the economy continues to challenge business. The company will continue managing the grounds and equipment at the facility to make it more inviting to potential new employers.

The $180 Gatorade manufacturing facility employed more than 200 employees when it opened at the beginning of 2008 and employed 225 employees by February of that year. However, the plant closed for a week during October due to a lag in production and more than 100 workers were laid off by December.

The facility to be closed is PepsiCo's ninth factory and the largest Gatorade plant in the world.