The Memphis Economic Development Partnership has announced that City Brewing Company, one of the premier contract beverage producers in the U.S., will acquire the Hardy Bottling facility on Raines Road and create 500 new jobs.
City Brewing, headquartered in La Crosse, WI, currently has production facilities located there and in Latrobe, PA, with the capacity to package over 60 million cases of products annually. These facilities have the capability to produce beer, flavored malt beverages, teas and energy drinks in a variety of bottle and can sizes and configurations.
“The acquisition of this facility will give City Brewing the capacity and the geographic location to serve their customers for many years to come,” said City of Memphis Mayor A C Wharton.
“We are so thankful to Carolyn Hardy and her team for bringing this fabulous new company to our community and for Carolyn’s undying determination to keep these brewing and bottling jobs in Memphis/Shelby County.”
“We are very excited about the job opportunities this project will bring to our county,” said Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell. “These are very high paying jobs with incredible benefits with a company that has a proven track record as an industry leader.”
City Brewing will pay their employees in Memphis an average wage of $41,705 per year. In addition, the company will provide a benefit package equaling 40% of the wage including health and dental insurance, 401k, sick leave and bonus compensation, etc. Close to 90 percent of the jobs created at the facility will be available to people with a high school education or equivalency.
John Moore, President & CEO of the Greater Memphis Chamber said the goal of the MemphisED Partnership has always been high paying jobs with great benefits.
“Our great ED team would not be able to identify, facilitate and execute these types of complex projects without the resources we get each year from the Memphis Fast Forward steering committee,” Moore said. “The work that has been done by the Memphis ED partners over the past three years is truly starting to pay dividends to our community.”
The Memphis/Shelby County Industrial Development Board today approved a PILOT incentive that will reduce the company’s tax liability by $5.7 million over a 15 year period. During that same time period city and county governments will generate $33.5 million in new revenues from the project. An analysis by IDB staff shows a project benefit versus cost ratio of 5.8 to 1, or the creation of $5.80 in new revenues generated for each dollar forgiven in future tax liabilities.
