The smells are amazing.
Westrock Coffee hosted the grand opening of its roast-to-ready-to-drink manufacturing facility, the largest of its kind in the industry, on Thursday, June 13. The 570,000-square-foot facility represents the company’s total investment of $315 million and was finished ahead of schedule.
“The team in the back has accomplished the impossible, the Westrock Conway crew,” CEO Scott Ford said at the grand opening. “Here’s what they said: It will take you three to four years to rehab this facility, to get it on, to get it qualified, to get it sanctioned by all the regulatory bodies and produce [the] finished product, and you did it in three years? No. Two years? No. Thirteen months. Well done.”
Westrock RTD canned coffee
The facility boasts the latest production techniques, robotics and end-to-end automation to seamlessly transport green coffee beans from receiving through the roast, grind and extraction processes to canning and packaging. It also includes a number of sustainable features geared toward reducing its carbon footprint, such as steam recycling.
That future-ready, integrated design allows Westrock to scale to meet growing industry demands while ensuring quality quickly.
Westrock, the “brand behind the brand” for many coffee labels, offers a comprehensive range of services, from coffee bean sourcing to final distribution. The facility will allow the company to serve customers better using an on-site research and development lab, which models full-scale operations to ensure a smooth transition from concept to commercial production.
Westrock Coffee bottled production line
With an eye for the future, the facility is pre-plumbed to allow four to six additional packaging lines to be installed without ceasing production.
In addition, Westrock opened a new 530,000-square-foot warehousing and distribution center two miles away to ensure efficient product distribution, reduce transportation times and promote a streamlined flow of materials and finished goods.
“In the next five years, we’re going to go from being the leading coffee and tea extract-based business to being the leading innovative beverage creator and producer in the world,” he said, “and we’re going to do it in the next five years on the hard work that all of you who helped and all of you in the back who ran this and are about to run right through the [limited production run] — amen? — and deliver on this wonderful, marvelous, crazy dream.”
Cedric Smith, Sr. VP of liquid manufacturing, leads tour
Ford was joined in speaking at the grand opening by his father, co-founder Joe Ford, his son Will Ford, group president of operations, and Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
“I’m excited both as a governor who’s working to grow our state’s economy and also as a well-known coffee addict who is always looking for more Arkansas-based caffeine options that you were able to turn this so quickly,” she said. “In fact, we may need to talk about the coffee at the Governor’s Mansion to get that replaced; make sure we have Westrock Coffee there.”
Scott Ford said he expects the new facility to help solidify Westrock’s position at the forefront of the coffee and ready-to-drink beverage field.
Westrock Coffee canned coffee production line
“The opening of the Conway facility marks a critical milestone for Westrock Coffee,” he said in a press release. “In line with our commitment as a world leader in beverage innovation, today we launch the largest integrated beverage facility in the Americas. This uniquely positions us as a leading force in beverage production across any channel or beverage format. Moreover, this facility extends our commitment to sustainability and responsible sourcing for our customers, farmer partners and the communities we serve.”
Westrock opened 15 years ago with a mission to provide small-scale farmers in developing countries with access to the free market and the ability to sell their goods at fair prices. Headquartered in Little Rock, the company has offices in 10 countries and sources coffee and tea from 35 countries of origin.
Aerial view of Westrock Coffee
Learn more at westrockcofee.com.
Feature Photo: Scott Ford, co-founder and CEO of Westrock Coffee, raises an RTD can produced by Westrock Coffee to officially toast the grand opening of the company’s ready-to-drink facility in Conway on June 13, 2024.
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