U.S. Soft Drink Bottlers Invest Billions in Plants

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Written by Eric Funderburk for IIR News Intelligence (Sugar Land, Texas)

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Summary

Grassroot construction accounts some of the largest projects underway in the U.S. soft drink bottling sector.

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Multiple Construction Projects

Water and soft drink bottling is big business, catering to range of tastes and dietary needs that fill the supermarket shelves with a huge selection of beverages. Bottlers are stepping up to the plate in the U.S., investing large sums in the construction of grassroot facilities and the expansion of existing plants.

Industrial Info Resources data show more than $2.5 billion in current construction investments underway at U.S. soft drink bottlers and another $1 billion worth of projects in various stages of planning and engineering.

Current Grassroot Construction

Several grassroot plants are being built from the ground up, requiring significant investments. Easily the largest of these is Red Bull's new vertically integrated complex being built on the grounds of the old Philip Morris cigarette manufacturing facility in Concord, North Carolina. The plant actually involves three companies: Red Bull, Rauch and Ball Corporation. Ball will manufacture the aluminum cans that will be filled in an approximately 800,000-square-foot area of the 2.3 million-square-foot complex. Rauch will be the actual bottler, acting in a co-packing capacity for Red Bull and responsible for the beverage production/can filling side, while Red Bull will operate the warehousing and distribution systems, which will be highly automated and have around 170,000 pallet spaces, according to a press release from the city. Conveyor systems will connect the various portions of the plant.

Readers can access details of the projects, including construction timelines, key contact details, and equipment and service needs, by clicking here.

Various companies bottling for Coca-Cola also represent a significant portion of current spending, covering multiple locations. One of the most significant of these is Swire Coca-Cola, USA's new 620,000-square-foot facility in Colorado Springs, Colorado, that will replace the company's aging plant in Denver. According to a city press release, the plant will produce more than 230 beverage options across 60 brands, including:

• carbonated soft drinks
• waters
• teas
• juice drinks
• sports drinks

Contractor The Whiting Turner Company broke ground on the facility earlier this year, with expectations of a 2028 completion.

The facility will be near a Swire Coca-Cola distribution center that was opened in Colorado Springs in 2022.

Coincidentally, Swire and the Red Bull/Rauch/Ball trifecta share a common location in Glendale, Arizona, where Swire has operated a distribution center since 2006 and a vertically integrated Red Bull bottling/distribution complex similar to the new North Carolina plant began operating in 2021.

Expansion & Addition Projects

Expansions of existing plants are very much on the books across the U.S., including at another Swire location in Arizona, where the company is expanding its bottling/distribution facility in Tempe. Swire is demolishing about 108,000 square feet of previous structure to make way for around 62,000 square feet of new manufacturing space and 125,000 of new warehousing and distribution space. The warehousing/distribution facility will reach a previously unprecedented height of 160 feet (the equivalent of around 10 stories), allowing for substantial capacity and letting Swire ramp up capacity on its new line configurations. The project is expected to be completed in late 2028, after Swire's Colorado Springs project.

Other Coca-Cola bottlers are investing in production growth in Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Indiana and Texas. Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages LLC is adding two new production lines at its Fort Worth, Texas, plant, while a similar project is underway at Coca-Cola Bottling Company's plant in Indianapolis.

Future Construction

Future soft drink bottling projects dot the U.S. landscape, but with none at this point approaching the scale of the Red Bull facility in North Carolina or Swire's new Colorado Springs plant. Brownfield construction features prominently in future developments, with one of the largest of these developments coming from co-packer Sip Manufacturing, which will renovate an existing 515,000-square-foot structure in Southaven, Mississippi, into a modern bottling facility. Among the brands that Sip provides co-packing services for are Slice soft drinks and smartwater enhanced water products. The new plant will bottle more than just soft drinks, with capabilities for producing hard seltzers in addition to Sip's soft drink offerings.

Another project planned for an existing site represents a completely new direction for company Edible Garden Incorporated, which intends to launch ready-to-drink beverage products, which it has never offered before. In addition to a range of pickles and fresh herbs, Edible Garden's current product lines include ready-to-mix drink powders targeting health and nutrition, and it is expected the company's ready-to-drink lines will include high-protein and similar nutritional offerings. Edible Garden will manufacture the drinks at a renovated site in Webster City, Iowa, using Tetra Pak packaging technology. The company is expected to start work next year and have work completed by the end of the year.

Key Takeaways

• Soft drink bottlers are underway with more than $2.5 billion worth of current U.S. construction.
• A vertically integrated Red Bull complex in North Carolina represents one of the largest current projects, along with a bottling plant for Coca-Cola products in Colorado Springs.
• Another $1 billion worth of soft drink bottling construction projects are on the books for the future.

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Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, Industrial Info Resources is tracking over 250,000 current and future projects worth $30.2 trillion (USD).