By Zanub Saeed
Starbucks announced that they will build a new manufacturing plant in Georgia this year, with a tentative open of around early 2014.
Starbucks Corp. will spend $172 million on the plant in Georgia, which will create more than 140 jobs for workers in the state, said a new report in the Associated Press on Friday. The Georgia plant is partly being built so that the company can move away, and handle products, from third-party plants in Latin America, noted the Associated Press.
The coffee chain, started over 40 years ago in Seattle, first made the announcement of the Augusta, Ga., facility in March. The plant will make its famous coffee and caffeinated drink products, especially the Via instant coffee and ingredients for Frappuccinos sold exclusively at Starbucks cafes and stores, and their branded goods at grocery stores throughout the country, said the Associated Press.
The 140 jobs will be inclusively for manufacturing positions in the plant, but more jobs will be created thanks to the plant for construction of the site and shipment of the goods once it opens in two years, noted the Associated Press. About 75 percent of those 140 jobs will include maintenance, engineering technicians, roasting operators, and packaging operators, listed the Associated Press, while the other 25 percent will include management and administrative staff.
The Georgia plant will be the company's fifth manufacturing facility in the United States, with a tentative finish date for early 2014, said the AP. The other four plants currently existing in the U.S. include those in Kent, Wash., York, Pa., Sandy Run, S.C., and Carson Valley, Nev., which overall employ more than 830 people in their respective states.
The fifth facility is being created also as a strategy to broaden Starbucks' business, as it is currently facing competition from other large franchise conglomerates like McDonald's and Dunkin' Donuts in the coffee and caffeinated products division, said the Associated Press.
