IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
Reyes Coca-Cola Bottling, the manufacturer and distributor of Coca-Cola products in the western United States and parts of the midwest, is planning to build a 620,000-square-foot campus with full production operations in Rancho Cucamonga.
The $500 million single-building project will create a replacement for the company’s 41-year-old distribution operation at 10670 6th St., which will be demolished, according to a company statement.
About 110 jobs will be added, bringing the company’s local workforce to more than 500 people. During construction, workers will be moved to a temporary facility in Fontana.
That 125,000-square-foot facility has been operating at that location since 1984. The new facility will be the fourth Coca-Cola production operation in California and the first in the Inland Empire. The others are in Los Angeles, Downey and San Leandro.
“Rancho Cucamonga will be a flagship facility within Reyes Coca-Cola Bottling and the Coca-Cola system,” the statement reads. “The company’s growth is expected to create new jobs, contributing to the economic development of the region, and strengthen the local workforce.”
When completed, the 635,000-square-toot manufacturing and distribution facility will have four production lines and produce approximately 30 million cases of beverages a year, Reyes Coca-Cola officials told the Rancho Cucamonga Planning Commission Oct. 8.
The project will also include expanded break rooms, training rooms, a parking garage with EV charging stations, training and conference facilities, and a recycling center.
The planning commission has approved the project. The city council is scheduled to vote on the matter Nov. 5.
Reyes Coca-Cola is part of the Reyes Family of Businesses, a global producer and distributor of food and beverage items. That group employs an estimated 36,000 people, operates more than 200 facilities, and averages more than $40 billion in annual sales, according to reyesholdings.com.
“Rancho Cucamonga will be a flagship facility within Reyes Coca-Cola Bottling and the Coca-Cola system,” the statement reads. “The company’s growth is expected to create new jobs, contributing to the economic development of the region, and strengthen the local workforce.”
The Rancho Cucamonga facility will be the type of manufacturing operation cities often battle each other for, mostly because of their potential to create high-paying jobs, generate tax revenue and pump money into the local economy, Mayor L. Dennis Michael said.
“It’s a $500 million investment they’re making in Rancho Cucamonga, and the entire project is going to take up about one city block,” Michael said, “That’s a huge commitment, and we’re very excited about it.”
Manufacturing jobs are highly sought after by state and local governments because they create high-paying jobs that often generate much tax revenue. Governments often offer incentives – tax credits, grants, reductions on land prices, infrastructure improvements – to land them.
Unlike logistics, which doesn’t pay as well or employ as many people, manufacturing can be be especially lucrative, and not only in the city or town where the manufacturer is located. Every dollar invested in manufacturing adds $2.69 to the broader economy, according to the Natural Association of Manufacturers.
In Rancho Cucamonga’s case, the manufacturer-to-be is a staple of American culture that dates back to the late 19th century, and carries a corporate brand name known all over the world.
“We’ve been looking for manufacturing, particularly medical manufacturing to take advantage of our medical facilities, but what Coca-Cola is proposing is perfect because they’re already here,” Michael said. “It fits the bill of what we’ve been looking for.”
Reyes Coca-Cola officials first approached Rancho Cucamonga about about a possible expansion about two years ago, and were immediately told the city would do whatever it could to make that happen.
The proposed project, which has engendered no opposition, should have a major economic impact, and not only in Rancho Cucamonga.
“Whatever happens in Rancho Cucamonga will add value not just to our community but the region,” Michael said. “When you create that many more jobs, it helps the housing market because you’re bringing in new people and they need a place to live. But that will also happen in the areas around Rancho Cucamonga.
“This will help move the entire Inland Empire forward.”
But manufacturing has been declining in the Inland Empire for 20 years, and the Reyes Coca-Cola expansion won’t do much to change that trend, said Manfred Keil, chief economist with the Inland Empire Economic Partnership.
The number of Inland Empire residents employed in manufacturing has dwindled from 10 percent in 2005 to 5.5 percent one year ago, the most recent numbers available. Statewide, the trend has been the same: 10.1 percent in two decades ago, 6,7 percent last year.
“That’s a pretty spectacular decline,” Keil said.
The Reyes Coca-Cola’s plant is a major coup for Rancho Cucamonga, but the Inland Empire, like California, still does not have an adequate number of manufacturing jobs, according to Manfred Keil.
“San Bernardino County lost 2,500 manufacturing jobs last year,” said Keil, also an associate professor of economics at Claremont McKenna College. “When you look at the number of jobs the Rancho Cucamonga project is going to bring in, it’s a drop in the bucket. But the numbers suggest that manufacturing in the Inland Empire is not completely dead.”
