Arkansas-based coffee roaster and distributor Westrock Coffee Co. has announced the construction of a new production facility that is set to bolster the company’s burgeoning ready-to-drink beverage business.
When completed, the 524,000 square-foot facility in Conway, Arkansas will be the largest facility roasting to ready-to-drink packaging facility in the U.S., according to a press release. The plant will include quality assurance and product R&D labs while utilizing “state-of-the-art equipment, including advanced robotics” to produce canned or bottled cold brew coffees, lattes, assorted teas, and juice-based products as well as single-serve coffee cups.
“We are expanding our finished product offerings, adding end beverage packaging solutions, and expanding our geographic reach to meet our growing customer demand,” said Scott Ford, CEO and co-founder of Westrock Coffee, in a press release. “Our growth benefits everyone at Westrock Coffee — from our global customers and farmer partners to our current and future employees and the communities where they live.
“These facility expansion announcements provide further evidence that we are well on our way to accomplishing our mission of building and efficiently operating the preeminent integrated coffee, tea, and extract supply chain in the world in order to enhance the lives of our farmer partners and fuel the success of the customers that we serve,” he added.
The facility expansions and upgrades reflect the ambitions of Westrock Coffee, one of the largest coffee businesses in the U.S. despite not being a household name, to add more manufacturing muscle to its operational structure. Founded in 2009, the company is a longtime supplier to foodservice, hospitality and convenience accounts that also offers a range of packaged coffee products at retail that highlight its responsible business practices, including supporting economically and environmentally sustainable supply chains for partner farmers. Earlier this year, it announced that 100% of its coffee and tea will be “responsibly sourced” by 2025.
Last year, Westrock completed a $405 million merger with S&D Coffee & Tea, upping its output capacity to over 200 million pounds of roasted coffee annually.
Though the company currently provides a limited supply of RTD cans by request to specific customers, the new facility creates an opportunity to grow that side of the business. A spokesperson for the company said in an email that Westrock is seeing “an uptick in this part of our business year-over-year due to customer demand.” The new facility is also equipped to produce BIB packaging and coffee beverages with milk.
Many of the roles at the plant — starting with the addition of 50 new jobs sometime in 2023, and rising to around 250 over time — will require a “significantly advanced and skilled workforce” that command higher salaries “ranging up to over $100,000 per year,” the release noted.
Westrock is also making upgrades to existing production facilities, starting with the expansion of its extract manufacturing location in Concord, North Carolina, set to be completed by the end of 2022. In response to “unprecedented growth” in demand for extract, tea and herbal products, the company is adding two fully automated production lines that will increase overall capacity of extracts by over half, and “modernizing” its process for bottled products.
Furthermore, Westrock has recently completed a 90,000 square-foot compound that includes two buildings in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, its first roasting, packaging and manufacturing facility outside of the U.S.