By JOSEPH S. PETE, Daily Journal of Johnson County staff writer
The world's largest bottled water company plans to open a $32 million bottling plant in Greenwood.
Nestle Waters North America wants to develop a 294,388-square-foot plant in Precedent South Business Park east of Interstate 65 and south of Main Street.
The plant is expected to create 64 new jobs with an average wage of $33,000 a year, not including benefits.
Nestle Waters, a subsidiary of the Swiss multinational packaged food company that makes such items as tea, coffee and chocolate bars, will invest about $30 million in bottling equipment and about $2 million in improvements to a building that Nestle will lease from Precedent Commercial Development.
The company wanted a central Midwestern plant to handle increased demand, Nestle spokeswoman Debbie Muchmore said.
Nestle Waters brands include Ice Mountain, Poland Spring and Arrowhead. The company had more than $9.6 billion in global sales in 2006.
The Greenwood plant will produce Nestle Pure Life and Pure Life Splash, a fruit-flavored water beverage with four varieties. Pure Life has been one of Nestle's fasting growing brands, and the company wanted to ship more to Midwestern markets, Muchmore said.
Nestle's plant will rely primarily on water from Indiana American Water Co., the utility serving the Greenwood area.
Bottles will be made, filled and labeled at the site. The tap water used will be purified and then remineralized for flavor, Muchmore said.
Manufacturing the bottles on site is common in the industry to cut down on shipping and energy costs, Muchmore said.
Nestle has indicated it will use 300,000 to 600,000 gallons of water per day, said Ron Ballard, the Johnson County superintendent of Indiana American Water Co.
The plant's high usage won't drain Indiana American's capacity or affect rates for other consumers, Ballard said. The utility can process 18 million gallons of water a day, with peak usage typically around 12 million gallons in the summer.
Precedent Commercial Development has been constructing the building, which will be completed in two months, vice president Larry Siegler said. The company won't release the cost of the building.
Nestle will lease the plant, which is on about 23 acres at Commerce Parkway and Graham Road. The installation of bottling equipment will start in October and should be finished in April.
Greenwood beat out several other locations in the central Indiana area, Siegler said.
The project hinges entirely on $3.2 million in tax abatements, or the gradual phasing in of property taxes on property and equipment over the next 10 years, Siegler said. Nestle had a pick of other communities in the Indianapolis metropolitan area that would offer abatements to secure the jobs, he said.
With the abatements, Nestle would pay $2.4 million in taxes over the next 10 years, revenue the city wouldn't receive if the building were vacant.
The Greenwood City Council has scheduled a hearing on the abatements for Wednesday.
A breakdown of the jobs that will be created wasn't available Friday, but Muchmore said most would be advanced manufacturing positions, with some requiring high tech expertise.
"These are high quality jobs in a clean environment, with an emphasis on teamwork and performance," she said.
Nestle also is seeking tax incentives and a work-force training grant through Indiana Economic Development Corp., Muchmore said.
The company will announce its hiring plans soon, Muchmore said.