Green Mountain Coffee Roasters announced expansion plans this week that call for more Vermont jobs and the creation of an additional production facility — which will be built beyond the state’s borders, company officials said.
The location has not yet been selected, but it will likely be in one of about six states in the Midwest or the South, CEO Lawrence Blanford said in a phone interview today.
A facility outside Vermont is preferable because it would reduce transportation costs and minimize the Waterbury-based company’s carbon footprint, the CEO said.
Having a production facility in those regions would put Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. within striking distance of large markets such as Florida, Texas, and Chicago, and Washington, D.C., said Jon Wettstein, the roaster’s vice president of supply chain operations.
Expansion plans also include hiring roughly 50 people to work in the company’s two Vermont facilities by the end of the year, Wettstein said. Most of the new hires will work at the Essex plant, which is dedicated to packaging K-Cup coffee for the Keurig coffee machines, the company’s single cup coffeemaker, he said.
The proposed production facility, referred to as “US3” by Blanford, since it would be Green Mountain Coffee’s third plant in the United States, will have a primary function of packaging single-serving k-cups, known as Keurig K-Cups, for the Keurig coffee system.
The functions of the facility — which will begin employing at least 30 people and will quickly grow to more than 100 — will likely broaden overtime, the CEO said.
“We are going to need more roasting capacity to keep up with the company’s growing demand, Blanford said, noting the proposed facility could begin roasting functions one to two years after opening.
Currently, all of Green Mountain Coffee’s roasting is done in Waterbury.
There are no plans, Blanford and Wettstein said, to shift jobs or operations from the two Vermont facilities to the proposed site.
“We are building US3 on the basis of a North American growth plan —which has the Northeast continuing to grow. I can’t underscore that enough,” the Blanford said, later adding, “We are in hiring mode here in Waterbury and in Essex and I don’t anticipate that going away.”
The bulk of the company’s 1,146 employees work in Vermont. The Essex packaging facility has 101 employees and Waterbury, which serves as the corporate headquarters as well as a roasting and packaging plant, employs 684 people, said company spokeswoman Sandy Yusen.
There are no plans to move the corporate headquarters; the company remains “absolutely committed to Vermont,” the CEO said.
