The proposed factory, expected to be built by 2020, would bottle its Deer Park 100% Natural Spring Water brand for distribution to customers throughout the US Mid-Atlantic region.
Nestlé Waters currently has two other bottling facilities located in Pennsylvania, representing a $350m capital investment over the past 20 years. Most recently, the company invested $79m in one of its Lehigh Valley facilities to install three new high-speed bottling lines and created 50 new jobs.
“In order to build in a new bottling facility, we need to work closely with the community,” Eric Andreus, Nestlé Waters’ natural resource manager in the Mid-Atlantic, said.
“We want to know that we are choosing the right location to operate – environmentally, socially, and economically.”
A Nestlé Waters spokesperson told BeverageDaily that the company is looking to monitor and potentially utilize a “backup” spring water source owned by Spring Township (a town within Centre County).
Nestlé Waters said it plans to conduct a scientific review to ensure that the spring source associated with the project can sustainably support company operations over the long term, without having any adverse impact on residents’ access to water.
“Scientific due diligence and community input are key to this determination,” the company said.
The $50m bottling facility building plan proposed by the Chamber of Business & Industry of Centre County (CBICC) and Centre County Industrial Development Corporation (CCIDC) would create 50 manufacturing jobs in the local community.
“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,” Vern Squier, president and CEO of CBICC, said.