Inside the new 570,000-square-foot Westrock Coffee beverage development and packaging factory in Conway, Arkansas. All images courtesy of Westrock Coffee.
Arkansas-based Westrock Coffee unveiled a massive coffee roasting and ready-to-drink (RTD) beverage factory and development lab last week.
Representing a $315 million investment in manufacturing, according to the company, the 570,000-square-foot facility sits just two miles away from Westrock’s new 530,000-square-foot warehousing and distribution center.
The company described the new RTD factory as North America’s “largest roast to ready-to-drink” facility.
Part of a 45-acre industrial campus on the outskirts of the central Arkansas city of Conway, the new factory was built for future expansion, with infrastructure pre-plumbed for an additional four to six packaging lines.
Currently, the factory includes a capacity of up to 1 million pounds of green coffee storage, with silos feeding two automated Scolari roasters with 360-kilogram-per-batch capacities.
A series of tanks can route liquids through various chillers or mixers en route to batching, filling and packaging machines. The facility can produce a variety of packaged beverages in cans, bottles and multi-serve containers.
The new facility also boasts what Westrock describes as a “comprehensive beverage development laboratory,” which includes lab-scale roasting, grinding and production equipment in order to advance beverage development from concept to the final product.
The facility is also outfitted to receive either green coffees, roasted coffees or pre-ground coffees from client companies.
“Our R&D lab is fully equipped to develop and refine retorted beverages from initial concept to final product,” the company said in a Q&A shared with the press. “It mirrors our full-scale operations, ensuring a smooth transition from lab-scale experiments to commercial production while maintaining high-quality standards.”
Founded by Scott Ford and his father Joe Ford in 2009, Westrock Coffee first started roasting in Little Rock in 2010. The company acquired North Carolina’s S&D Coffee & Tea for $405 million just prior to the pandemic shutdowns in 2020. The company went public in August 2022, and is currently listed on the NASDAQ exchange.
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Nick Brown Nick Brown is the editor of Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine.
