Things are about to perk up at Kent’s Starbucks roasting plant.
The Seattle-based company plans a multi-million dollar investment in the plant that opened in 1992 in north Kent.
“It’s going to be in the multi-tens of millions (of dollars),” said Starbucks spokesman Alan Hilowitz during a phone interview Thursday.
Hilowitz said he didn’t have an exact figure yet on the amount of the investment, but many changes are planned.
“It’s going to be a great upgrade,” Hilowitz said. “It will make it a world class manufacturing and distribution facility.”
The three major changes include:
• Upgrade the current manufacturing, packaging and distribution center.
• Move the pilot plant to Kent from the Seattle headquarters for more room to test new products and packaging.
• Move the Starbucks-owned Tazo Tea manufacturing plant to Kent from Portland.
“It’s a business decision,” Hilowitz said. “It creates effectiveness and reduces redundancies.”
Starbucks plans to start the Tazo Tea move in April and finish it by next November. The company bought Tazo in 1999.
“Right now the tea is manufactured in Portland, shipped to Kent and then sent out to the stores,” Hilowitz said. “This will eliminate the extra shipping. The consolidation gives us one point of distribution on the West Coast – Kent.”
The 37 employees at the Portland tea plant will receive offers of a full relocation package to work in Kent; other job offers within the company; or a severance package.
The improvements are expected to add about 50 jobs to the Kent plant, which now has about 140 employees.
Starbucks also has roasting plants in Nevada, South Carolina, Pennsylvania and Amsterdam.
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