Honest Helps out Founder's Home State

The closest that Honest Tea TeaEO – and Massachusetts native – Seth Goldman has come to running for office thus far has been sending product to the White House, but he did join Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick to unveil the expansion of the Northampton, Mass. Coca-Cola Refreshments plant. The project, which received financial support from the Patrick-Murray Administration and the City of Northampton, created 100 new jobs and attracted more than $50 million in private investment to the Western Massachusetts community.

After the state and city committed more than $2 million in funding and tax abatements, Coca-Cola committed to creating 40 full-time manufacturing jobs over five years, retaining 176 existing jobs and investing $39.4 million in the project. The company has already exceeded their obligations by creating 100 jobs and directing over $50 million towards the project’s completion.

As part of the facility’s $50 million investment, two cold-fill juice lines producing primarily Minute Maid products were added. The cold-fill project included all packaging, processing and infrastructure required to support the product line. Other facility improvements included a 13,000 square foot expansion and conversion of warehouse space to cold storage.

Coca-Cola in Northampton has been producing hot fill products (Powerade, Minute Maid) since 1995. From 2003-2010, the Company invested over $35 million to support the growth of the hot-fill business in Northampton. This investment has supported the production of many new products and packages including: Honest Tea, Fuze, Vitaminwater, Vitaminwater Zero and Gold Peak Tea. The Coca-Cola Northampton facility employees over 260 people.