Big things are brewing
Keurig Dr Pepper plans to spend $220M and hire nearly 400 at manufacturing-warehouse complex at site of Kraft Heinz plant
The operation Keurig Dr Pepper Inc. is planning in the Lehigh Valley will provide a jolt of caffeine to a site in Upper Macungie Township that Kraft Heinz retired about three years ago.
More specifically, the beverage giant’s project ingredient list includes a 1.5 millionsquare-foot manufacturing, warehouse and distribution operation at 7352 Industrial Blvd., where it will invest about $220 million for building infrastructure costs, equipment acquisition and training, Gov. Tom Wolf announced Monday. The project also is a recipe for significant hiring, with the company pledging to create at least 378 full-time jobs over the next three years, Wolf said.
“My administration has been committed to finding the right company to utilize this site, and we are proud that Keurig Dr Pepper has agreed to expand its operations and create new jobs in the commonwealth,” Wolf said. “Today’s announcement is great news for the Lehigh Valley region.”
The state Department of Community and Economic Development offered Keurig Dr Pepper an incentive package worth about $2.8 million. That includes a $1.5 million Pennsylvania First grant, $1.134 million in Job Creation Tax Credits and $170,100 for worker training.
Wolf ’s announcement comes six days after The Morning Call reported Keurig Dr Pepper had signed a lease for a recently completed 730,000-square-foot warehouse at the former Kraft Heinz site, now called the Park 100 Logistics Center. Further, the company also will occupy the 92-acre site’s second building, a planned 810,000-squarefoot manufacturing plant that will have up to eight bottling lines.
Keurig Dr Pepper spokeswoman Katie Gilroy confirmed the company will lease both buildings, which will be con
nected by a tramway that will deliver pallets from the manufacturing facility to the warehouse.
Gilroy said warehouse operations are expected to begin by year end. The company will accept applications beginning this month for a variety of warehouse positions at www.keurigdrpepper.com/careers.
Gilroy said the company will provide an update on the manufacturing plant at a later date. Site work is ongoing there, and public documents forecast the first four bottling lines will be operational in the second quarter of 2020, with another four lines ready in the third quarter of 2022.
Gilroy said the plant will be focused on the production of noncarbonated beverages, though she did not disclose which brands. Keurig Dr Pepper has a full lineup of beverages, from several coffee brands to soft drinks such as 7Up, Canada Dry and A&W to numerous tea, water and juice brands.
In addition, Gilroy said she had no changes to announce for the company’s facility on City Line Road in Bethlehem, which is focused on carbonated beverage production. Keurig Dr Pepper took over that facility in late 2014 after acquiring Bethlehem’s Davis Beverage Group and Davis Bottling Co. The production plant in Lehigh Valley Industrial Park I has one bottling line and employs around 50 people, more than 30 of whom are unionized.
But for Keurig Dr Pepper, created following the completion of the $18.7 billion merger last year between Keurig Green Mountain and Dr Pepper Snapple Group, this project will provide additional capacity for existing and new brands while helping to optimize its Northeast logistics operation.
“KDP is focused on building an integrated, best-in-class manufacturing network that supports the production of all beverages in all categories,” KDP Chief Supply Chain Officer Fernando Cortes said in the release. “Our new facility in Allentown and additional supply chain investments in existing facilities support our vision for providing a beverage for every consumer. We are excited to become part of the Allentown community as we continue to invest in new and exciting opportunities for growth.”
The project — coordinated by the Governor’s Action Team — also will catapult Keurig Dr Pepper up the list of significant food-and-beverage manufacturers in the Lehigh Valley.
It’s a notable list already, filled with the likes of Boston Beer Co., Ocean Spray, Nestle Waters North America, Nestle Purina and Freshpet.
“We welcome Keurig Dr Pepper to the large cluster of national food, beverage, and pet food producers that call the Lehigh Valley home,” Don Cunningham, president and CEO of the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp., said in the release. “With the growing demand in the Lehigh Valley market, we had little doubt that the Kraft property would be quickly reused after its closure due to the Heinz merger.”
It was November 2015 when Kraft Heinz announced its factory in Upper Macungie was one of seven facilities slated to close in a massive downsizing disclosed four months after the megamerger that married Kraft and Heinz.
At that time, the company’s workforce, which hit 1,100 people in the mid-1970s, was down to about 415, still one of the larger food manufacturers in the area.
The operation closed for good Nov. 18, 2016, ending the company’s 44-year run in the area as a major producer of Grey Poupon mustard, A.1. Steak Sauce and Miracle Whip.
Now, it will be up to another recently merged giant to start a new run in its place.
“We welcome Keurig Dr Pepper to the large cluster of national food, beverage, and pet food producers that call the Lehigh Valley home.” — Don Cunningham, Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp.