Bergen Brunswig to Close 2 Warehouses in County, Transfer Workers to Corona

Bergen Brunswig Corp., a pharmaceutical distribution company based in Orange, said Tuesday that it will close its two warehouses in Anaheim and Buena Park next year and transfer up to 125 local workers to a new facility in Corona in Riverside County.

A third distribution center in San Bernardino will also be closed as part of a plan to consolidate and modernize operations in Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

Urs Aeberli, who will be manager of the Corona warehouse, said population growth in the region has generated a demand for pharmaceutical supplies that is straining Bergen Brunswig’s facilities.

The Corona warehouse, expected to be completed in April, 1990, will be the largest of Bergen Brunswig’s 37 distribution centers nationwide at 231,000 square feet.

Corona was selected as the site for the new facility because it is centrally located to serve the three-county region, Aeberli said.

Company spokesman John T. Fay Jr., said the company’s strategy is “to increase efficiency by having much larger and more automated facilities.” He said the company’s long-term goal is to cut the number of distribution centers to 20 by building one or two large, automated centers every year and closing old ones.

The new warehouse will be 20 miles from the existing warehouse in Anaheim and 25 miles from the one in Buena Park.

Aeberli, who lives in Riverside, said most of the company’s Orange County warehouse workers do not consider their future transfer to Corona a hardship. He noted that many of the people who work at the Orange County facilities already live in Riverside County.

Bob Besst, an inventory coordinator in Bergen Brunswig’s Buena Park warehouse, lives in Stanton, only 5 miles from work. He said he and some co-workers are considering moving closer to Corona to take advantage of lower real estate prices outside Orange County.

“I have a 30-year-old house now, and for the same price I can get a larger house in the Riverside/Corona area that is brand new,” he said.