A month and a half after Manna Beverages abruptly closed its manufacturing facilities statewide, a new ownership group has purchased the former West Sacramento plant and plans to restart operations there at full scale.
CBS Sacramento broke the news on Oct. 3 that Manna Beverages sent a “notice of termination” to nearly 400 employees at the West Sacramento shop. Many learned they were laid off by text message on Thursday night, October 2, alerting them not to come to work Friday morning.
That Friday, signs were posted on the doors to Manna Beverages’ building alerting staff to go home.
Hundreds more employees were laid off at the company’s Chino and Anaheim locations just days before the company would cease all operations on Oct. 7.
In total, 627 employees were laid off in total.
“It was hard. I’ve been there forever. I wanted to work there forever,” said Sarah Fitzgerald, a laid-off employee and single mother. “I was devastated. I’m thinking about my baby, you know, how am I going to provide for her for the holidays?”
The company had a beverage bottling plant on Stone Boulevard and a shipping and receiving center located on Massie Court in West Sacramento.
Fitzgerald worked in payroll for seven years and says she saw the financial trouble written on the wall.
“We could see some financial issues. There were times that we had to wait last minute for payroll,” Fitzgerald said. “They weren’t able to pay certain things and fix certain things, you know, lines that need to be fixed.”
Then, a week before the layoffs were announced, she was startled by news of issuing final checks.
“They were telling us the week prior they were going to close. We had to get everything ready. We had to lie to our employees, let them think that the system was down because we were trying to get final checks prepared and ready,” Fitzgerald said. “Then, we got a call from our boss saying, actually, come to work. Reverse everything you did, everything’s fine. Then, a week later, that’s when everybody found out. So they were planning on doing it [layoffs] a week prior.”
She said she feels for the employees who worked there for decades.
“There’s people that were getting ready to retire, you know. If we had an idea of what was going on, it would have been a little easier. They had more than enough time to let us know, and they didn’t,” Fitzgerald said.
The city of West Sacramento was also blindsided by the plant’s closure. The former Nor-Cal Beverage Company was family-run for nearly 90 years until it was officially acquired by Manna Beverages in January 2024.
About a month and a half after Manna Beverage’s closure, a new company has now acquired all of the company’s West Sacramento assets.
“It was nothing short of a lot of stars aligning in a very short amount of time here,” said Lenny Davis of Harry Davis & Company, which brokered the sale.
Two investment groups, Tricor Pacific Capital and 13th Floor Capital, came together to form Redwood Beverage Group LLC, with the intention of a full-scale restart of the plant’s operations in West Sacramento.
“I can tell you that they have run some very successful businesses and they have resurrected some very successful businesses,” said Davis. “I think ultimately what Redwood saw here was an opportunity to successfully resurrect a business in that location.”
Manna Beverages bottled and shipped out popular beverages at its West Sacramento plant, like Monster Energy drinks, Alani Nu, BODYARMOR drinks and Minute Maid juices.
Redwood Beverage plans to re-hire as many laid-off employees as possible, and they say they have already restarted some operations.
“We look forward to welcoming back as many of the former employees as possible. We’ve met many of them and they are terrific, hard-working people, and we look forward to welcoming them to the Redwood team. Our goal is to return to full-scale operations quickly and restore jobs as we ramp operations up,” said Josh Young, principal for 13th Floor Capital.
To that news, Fitzgerald says her immediate response is to be cautiously optimistic.
“It was hopeful. I’ll say that. I don’t want to say I was super excited, nor anybody that I’ve talked to. We all loved each other. We were a family and would love to work together. But there’s concerns about it,” Fitzgerald said. “What about benefits? What about pay? What about position status? You know, all those things. So it’s exciting, but it’s scary.”
Fitzgerald said employees also fear being laid off again in the near future if the new venture fails.
In the meantime, Manna Beverages is in hot water.
Several lawsuits have been filed by former employees, including a class action federal lawsuit alleging employees “…were not provided 60 days’ advance written notice of their terminations by defendant, as required by the WARN Act,” the lawsuit says.
The WARN Act aims to shield employees from abrupt mass layoffs and is protected by both federal law and California state law.
On Oct. 3, the same day Manna Beverages sent the “notice of termination” to more than six hundred employees, the company also filed a WARN notice with California’s Employment Development Department (EDD).
The company claimed an exemption to the WARN Act, alleging the law does not apply because they were actively working to sell the company when they went under.
“These circumstances were not reasonably foreseeable on August 3, 2025, when notice would have been required as provided in Section 1402.5 of the Cal-WARN Act,” the company’s notice sent to EDD reads. “The Company reasonably and in good faith believed that giving notice earlier would have precluded the Company from securing additional capital through a going-concern sale or otherwise obtaining additional funding. Potential acquirers would not close a going-concern sale with, or be willing to provide additional capital to, the Company if the workforce would be looking for other employment.”
Still, former employees are asking for accountability from Manna Beverages.
“One of their big key things and core values was transparency. None of us felt that ever, especially towards the end,” Fitzgerald said.
Several employees, including the leadership of the employees’ union, asked if any investors or ownership previously affiliated with Manna Beverages are involved with the new company, Redwood Beverage. CBS Sacramento asked leaders directly.
“No. The investment partners, 13th Floor and Tricor Pacific, have no relationship with the Manna ownership group. No owners, officers or directors of Manna will be involved with Redwood or have any interest or relationship with Redwood Beverage Group,” Young responded.
Davis told CBS Sacramento that Harry Davis & Co. is still working to find a buyer for the Anaheim facility, which is still available for sale.
If a purchase does not happen, an auction sale is scheduled for the Anaheim assets on Dec. 3.
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