Westrock Coffee Opens Largest ‘Roast-to-Ready-to-Drink,’ Highly Automated Plant
Westrock Coffee Co. last week opened what it claims is the largest roast-to-ready-to-drink manufacturing facility in North America. Located in Conway, Ark., the 570,000-sq.-ft. facility cost $315 million and includes manufacturing and a beverage development laboratory.
The plant includes robotics and end-to-end automation for seamless manufacturing from green coffee receiving through roast and grind, extraction and all the way through to bottling and packaging. Additionally, a new 530,000-sq.-ft. warehousing and distribution center, located just two miles away, ensures efficient product distribution, reduces transportation times and maintains a smooth and transparent flow of materials and finished goods.
Westrock Coffee is an integrated coffee, tea, flavors, extracts and ingredients provider to retail, foodservice and restaurant, convenience store and non-commercial accounts around the world. With offices in 10 countries, the company sources coffee and tea from 35 origin countries.
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Dave Fusaro
Editor in Chief
Dave Fusaro has served as editor in chief of Food Processing magazine since 2003. Dave has 30 years experience in food & beverage industry journalism and has won several national ASBPE writing awards for his Food Processing stories. Dave has been interviewed on CNN, quoted in national newspapers and he authored a 200-page market research report on the milk industry. Formerly an award-winning newspaper reporter who specialized in business writing, he holds a BA in journalism from Marquette University. Prior to joining Food Processing, Dave was Editor-In-Chief of Dairy Foods and was Managing Editor of Prepared Foods.