Asahi Beverages has announced that it will be closing three of its factories located in MacGregor (QLD), Moorebank (NSW) and Payneham (SA). 140 jobs will be affected as production at the sites moves to other manufacturing facilities in the company’s network.

The closures come as a result of a number of recent acquisitions and are an attempt to reduce the company’s footprint in Australia.

“The Asahi Beverages business has grown through acquisitions over the past few years and as a result the company has an extensive manufacturing network, including multiple factories in some states”, a company statement said. “The company has undertaken a review of its existing network to determine the most effective footprint to deliver growth and efficiencies.”

Asahi says it has increased the production capacity of several sites in order to manage the consolidation.

In addition, Chief Executive Officer, Atsushi Katsuki has said that the company will work with employees affected by the closures to find other work.

“With rapidly changing consumer preferences we need to ensure we can adapt to innovations in the market place quickly and effectively”, Katsuki said. “Like all businesses, we constantly face the challenge of reducing our costs and improving productivity to remain competitive in the market place. This reconfiguration will support longer term business sustainability.”