Starbucks completes expansion of Augusta plant
Starbucks has completed expansion of its Soluble Coffee Facility in Georgia, US.
The $121 million design-build project added 150,000 square feet to the existing building, nearly doubling its original size to a new total of about 325,000 square feet.
Prompted by Starbucks growth and consumer demand, the expansion added six new whole bean roasters, allowing the facility to produce up to 146.8 million pounds of coffee per year at maximum capacity.
“Our biggest design improvement was implementing a unique flexibility layout and process that allows Starbucks to transfer product from any one of the plant’s unroasted coffee storage silos to roasted bean storage all the way through to any one of the plant’s packaging lines,” said Jason Goode, senior project engineer at Stellar, a design, engineering, construction and mechanical services firm who carried out the work.
Stellar also designed and installed provisions for two future packaging lines to accommodate continued growth.
The plant is the first company-owned facility in the world to produce Starbucks soluble products. The coffee roasted at the plant is used in Starbucks VIA Instant, as well as in the coffee base for Frappuccino blended beverages and many of the Starbucks bottled and canned beverages. The plant produces packaged coffee for Starbucks stores and retail locations in the Northeast and Southeast US.
“We were proud to once again partner with Starbucks and take this award-winning facility to the next level,” said Todd Allsup, vice president of sales for Stellar’s Food Group. “This is a state-of-the-art coffee plant unlike any other in the country, and it speaks to the Starbucks commitment to innovation, sustainability and delivering a high-quality product.”
