As the industry continues to navigate a new “normal,” major beverage players are finding innovative ways to weather the storm. Among those players are operators, who tactfully are expanding on existing beverage facilities or building brand-new ones to ensure continued efficiency.

T. Hasegawa USA will open a new plant to expand capabilities of sweet beverage flavors, while EverGreen Ingredients partnered with The Carbon Underground for a soil restoration initiative.

Warehouse operations seem to be changing with the times as the concept of sustainable facilities has become a must for today’s operations managers.

While experts note new facility builds have decreased slightly, many beverage businesses still are expanding or constructing facilities to meet demands of growth and expansion.

Ingredient suppliers demonstrate continued innovation by building new facilities, commercializing next-generation sweeteners and appointing chief diversity officers.

OnRobot US Inc. unveiled the MG10, a versatile, high-performance, easy-to-use magnetic gripper for material handling. 

The beverage market is “seeing the light” on how to amplify sustainable operations, including adoption of solar technology.

To support New York-based Diageo North America’s growth strategy in the ready-to-drink (RTD) category, the company announced plans to expand its manufacturing footprint and install two can lines at a new facility in Plainfield, Ill. With an investment of approximately $80 million, the site will have the capacity to produce more than 25 million cases of RTDs a year, including Smirnoff seltzers and the newly launched spirits-based RTD cocktails from Crown Royal and Ketel One Botanicals.

Beverage ingredient suppliers are investing capital expenditures into expanding existing facilities or building new ones.

Sweetener Solutions, Pooler, Ga., announced an expansion to existing production capacity and warehousing space through the creation of a new, additional climate-controlled facility near its corporate headquarters in Pooler, Ga.