Nestlé Waters to set up plant in Sacramento warehouse

Nestlé Waters North America Inc. will pump $14 million into the local economy to convert a warehouse in the Florin Fruitridge Industrial Park into a two-line water bottling plant.

The company announced Friday that it will create by early next year a bottling plant that will employ about 40 people. The plant will be created from 214,434 square feet of existing warehouse space on Younger Creek Drive in Sacramento.

The new bottling plant initially will bottle up to 150 acre-feet of water annually, purchased from the city of Sacramento and from nearby private springs. The plant will bottle water under the company’s Nestlé Pure Life brand and Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water brands for distribution to its customers primarily in Northern California, a news release said.

Nestlé Waters North America currently has no presence in the Sacramento area. Its nearest plants are in Calistoga near Napa and in Livermore.

The company will employ about 16 people to install equipment and retrofit the building. When the bottling plant is fully operational, it will employ about 40 workers. The jobs will pay competitive wages and offer benefits, including medical, dental and vision insurance, life insurance, 401(k) and profit sharing.

“Nestlé Waters looks forward to building strong partnerships in the Sacramento community as both an employer and neighbor,” Chris Kemp, Nestlé Waters Sacramento plant manager, said in the release. “It is our commitment to invest not just our resources, but also our time and energy into the communities where we operate and we hope to learn more about how to be a part of Sacramento in the coming months.”

The Sacramento Area Commerce and Trade Organization and city and county of Sacramento representatives helped attract the company to the area.

“Nestlé Waters’ decision to open and operate a bottling facility in Sacramento is a testament to our city’s strengths as a good place to do business and create jobs,” Jeanne Reaves, SACTO board chairwoman, said in a news release.

“This is exactly the type of light, clean industry SACTO works to attract to this region and we look forward to continuing to work together with them as the company becomes a part of our community and our economic base,” she said.

“It adds another international company to the constellation of firms calling Sacramento home,” Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson said in a release. “During these tough economic times, this company will not only bring jobs to the city, but it is also nice to have a reaffirmation that many firms still see Sacramento as such a desirable location.”

Oates Investments Inc. owns the warehouse that Nestlé Waters will occupy.

The bottler signed a 10-year lease with options to extend, Kemp said. Nestlé Waters still needs a building permit from the city.

“We chose the city of Sacramento primarily because of its proximity to our customers in Northern California, affordability and business-friendly environment,” Kemp said.

Industrial broker Ryan DeAngelis with CB Richard Ellis represented Nestlé Waters in the deal. Cable & Kilpatrick Inc. represented the landlord.

Nestlé Waters searched everywhere between Auburn, Vacaville and Tracy, DeAngelis said in an interview. It was a “pretty quick” deal, lasting only three and a half months, he said.

“It was a nice deal to have given all the negative news in the market,” DeAngelis said.

“It’s been a pleasure working with Nestlé’s representatives who were very professional and impressed us by their commitment to being part of the Sacramento community,” Scott Cable and Andrew Kilpatrick wrote in an e-mail. “Nestle stresses quality in everything they do and we are proud to be a part of their Sacramento operation.”

Also helping bring Nestlé Waters to Sacramento were Jim Rinehart, Tom Zeidner and Dave Brandt from the city of Sacramento.

Nestlé Waters, a 33-year-old company based in Greenwich, Conn., distributes 15 of the nation’s best-known bottled water brands, the company says on its Web site. Its brands include Perrier, Calistoga, Poland Spring, San Pellegrino and Ice Mountain.

The company employs more than 8,400 nationwide, including nearly 2,000 people in California.

Nestlé Waters will conduct a wage survey in two to three weeks to determine what comparable jobs pay. The company will pay in the top half of wages for those jobs, Kemp said in an interview.