EVERETT — Where Tethys Enterprises tried and failed to open a beverage bottling plant in Everett last year, a new group hopes to succeed.
Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon announced Wednesday in his State of the County address to the Everett Area Chamber of Commerce that Evergreen Bottling is in talks with the Port of Everett to build a 100,000-square-foot facility to bottle water-based beverages for domestic and foreign consumption.
Reardon said the Port of Everett will handle up to 15 million bottles of water per month for shipment overseas from the new business. The new plant is expected to produce up to 50 million bottles per month.
Dave Markle, the new company’s senior vice president and general manager, said they expect to build in the Port of Everett’s Riverside area along the Snohomish River in the north end of Everett. Markle expects it will take 10 to 12 months to get the plant up and running after getting the necessary permits. While Evergreen Bottling is still in formation as a company, he said, the partners will start working on the building’s architectural plans next week.
“The location near the port was huge in our decision,” Markle said. “It’s underutilized and we’ll be shipping a lot of containers out of that port. In this business, every penny counts.”
The facility will have two shifts daily running two high-speed bottling lines that will employ 45 to 50 people, with another 10 workers in warehouse and administrative positions, Markle said. With future expansion, he expects the plant will employ 100 people.
He said Evergreen Bottling already has contracts with companies in Japan, one of which distributes products throughout southeast Asia.
The new company will start with plain water and flavored water, then add fruit juices to the line later, Markle said.
He said it was important to the contract customers that the bottled water be of high quality. The Spada Lake water Evergreen Bottling will use meets that standard.
Tethys Enterprises was negotiating with the city of Everett to get up to 5 million gallons of water per day from the Spada Lake reservoir for its proposed bottling plant before Mayor Ray Stephanson broke off talks with Tethys principal Steve Winter over jobs creation. Markle said Evergreen Bottling expects to use 2 million gallons of Everett water per month for its operation.
At Wednesday’s Everett City Council meeting, Stephanson and a few council members said Reardon’s announcement was news to them.
The mayor said that “no one was more surprised to hear that news than myself.” He said he first heard about it last week and his impression of the project that it was in the very preliminary phases.
Markle said being on port property with ready transportation access for overseas shipping “is huge for us.”
Donna Ambrose with Reardon’s office started working with the Evergreen Bottling group about a year ago to educate them on the benefits of locating in Snohomish County. The group was initially looking at sites in Colorado.
“Logistics cost reduction is an advantage,” Markle said of the decision to set up shop in Everett.
Herald writer Debra Smith contributed to this story.
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