Nestle Waters has identified Centre County as a potential location for its third bottling facility in Pennsylvania.
The company, along with the Chamber of Business and Industry of Centre County, announced on Wednesday that it is considering sites in county for the factory, which would create an estimated 50 manufacturing jobs.
“A Nestlé Waters bottling facility would inject tens of millions of dollars into our local economy, provide a substantial tax benefit, and bring family-wage manufacturing jobs back to our communities,” said Vern Squier, president and CEO of CBICC. “The opportunity to bring a global leader in the food and beverage industry into Centre County is a win-win-win for our workforce, our tax-base, and for economic development.
‘We are pleased that our local efforts are helping to advance this project, and we are excited about the prospects of having Nestlé Waters North America as a corporate citizen of Centre County.”
The facility would bottle Deer Park Spring Water for distribution in the Mid-Atlantic as part of the company’s regional spring water model.
To narrow the search for a location for the facility CBICC and Nestle Waters representatives are meeting with municipal officials in the county to gauge interest and feasibility. Eric Andreus, Nestlé Waters’ natural resource manager in the Mid-Atlantic, attended the Spring Township supervisors meeting on Tuesday to discuss the possibility.
“In order to build in a new bottling facility, we need to work closely with the community,” Andreus said. “We want to know that we are choosing the right location to operate – environmentally, socially and economically.”
Nestle Waters will conduct ‘a thorough scientific review and due diligence process to ensure that any spring source associated with this project can sustainably support company operations over the long term, without having any adverse impact on residents’ access to water,’ according to a news release.
In the coming months, the company and CBICC will hold an informational session to give residents the opportunity to ask questions about Nestle Waters, a potential bottling facility in Centre County and possible job opportunities.
Nestle Waters operates two bottling facilities in Breinigsville, Pa., where it employs more than 600 people. It has made $350 million in capital investments in the Lehigh Valley plants, which include the first food manufacturing facility in Pennsylvania to receive the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification.
