Nestlé Purina Petcare Co, a St. Louis subsidiary of Nestlé has announced plans to construct a factory in Clermont County’s Williamsburg Township at a cost of $550 million. Purina is a leading producer of pet care products in the world.
The dry pet food plant will be built on a 192-acre piece of land in South Afton Industrial Park. The company acquired the land Clermont County CIC Inc to undertake various developments in the county. The land was acquired for $6.95 million. Purina will construct a 1.2 million-square-foot factory which is projected to create an additional 300 jobs.
In a statement, Purina president Nina Leigh Krueger said the company is constructing the new factory in response to growing consumer demand. In addition to the new Clermont County facility, the company is also putting up another factory in Ohio as it seeks to even advance its more than 90-years history of making pet care products.
Purina’s factory in Clermont County will be located at 4226 Half Acre Road and will produce cat and dog food in brands like Dog Chow, Purina One, and Purina Pro Plan. The factory’s construction is expected to start this fall with its completion scheduled for 2023. Gray Construction based in Lexington has been contracted to build the new factory.
The company projects that by 2024, the factory will create around 300 jobs among them engineers, technical staff, production operators, and professional staff. Cumulatively, these jobs are expected to inject $12.5 million in the economy in terms of annual payroll. The new factory will be the company’s 23rd manufacturing location in the United States.
The new factory will be built with state-of-the-art technologies as well as designs that will benefit from innovative Nestlé facilities around the world. The plant will be built to meet the world food safety standards as well as Purina’s world-class quality.
“I’m excited to be able to leverage the knowledge and experience throughout Nestlé to build this world-class facility,” said Nolan Terry, vice president and director of manufacturing for Purina.
