miller-eden

EDEN, N.C. (Triad Business Journal) – The Nestle Purina Petcare Co. will invest more than $450 million to transform a former Miller brewery in Eden, N.C. into a factory that will produce dog and cat food.

The St. Louis-based company could receive almost $50 million in state and local incentives to transform the former MillerCoors brewery in Eden if it meets employment and investment benchmarks. The plant, which will occupy 1.3 million square feet of building space, will eventually employ 300 with an average wage of $43,053.

Nestle Purina is buying the 1,365-acre property that straddles the North Carolina-Virginia border but the sale has not closed so terms were not available.

The company hopes to start operations at the facility in 2022.

The state of North Carolina approved $24.6 in incentives for Nestle Purina, and Eden and Rockingham County will provide an additional $24.4 million. Details of the incentive packages were not immediately available but will be contingent on Nestle Purina hitting benchmarks for investment and job creation. In the case of the state incentives, the company will need to meet a 90 percent minimum requirement for job creation, wages and investment in the property. The company must also retain its current 23 N.C. employees to be eligible for the grants.

Nestle Purina also considered sites in Ohio, which offered a $42 incentive package, and Kentucky, which offered $40 million.

The brewery opened in 1978 and employed as many as 1,500 at peak, though that number had fallen to 600 in more recent years. MillerCoors closed the facility in 2016, laying off about 520 workers. The plant was able to brew up to 9 million barrels annually and produced Coors Light, Miller Lite, Miller High Life, Miller Genuine Draft and Steel Reserve, Blue Moon seasonal brands and other specialty brands. The facility won “brewery of the year” honors from MillerCoors three times between 2011 and 2015.

D.H. Griffin Cos. bought the facility in December, 2018 for $2.57 million. MillerCoors paid Miller Brewing Co. $53.6 million for the property in 2008, the year SABMiller and Molson Coors merged their U.S. operations.

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