After landing $49M incentive package from NC, Purina will add 300 jobs in Eden
Four years after closing and cutting 500 jobs, a new tenant has been found for the former MillerCoors brewery in Eden, North Carolina.
The North Carolina Commerce Department announced Wednesday that Nestlé Purina Petcare, a maker of pet food, will add 300 jobs there in exchange for a large incentive package from the state and local governments.
The state’s Economic Investment Committee approved, via a conference call, a $24.6 million incentive package for the jobs.
Eden and Rockingham County will also contribute $24.4 million worth of incentives to value the total package at $49 million, or around $163,333 per job. Purina will have to meet hiring and investment targets to earn that money.
The jobs would be added between 2022 and 2024 and will pay on average $42,000. The state said Eden was competing with locations in Ohio, which offered $42 million in incentives, and Kentucky, which offered $40 million.
The company, a subsidiary of Switzerland-based Nestlé, plans to invest $450 million to turn the former brewery into a manufacturing facility for pet food.
The closure of the MillerCoors brewery in the middle of the last decade was a huge loss for Rockingham County. At the time, it was the county’s third-largest employer, behind Walmart and Unifi.
MillerCoors closed the Eden brewery in 2016, after saying it needed to streamline its operations amid a drop in demand for its products, the Greensboro News & Record reported.
Rockingham County had an unemployment rate of 7.5% in August, according to figures released by the state’s commerce department. That’s higher than the statewide rate of 6.8%.
Last August, in a pre-pandemic economy, Rockingham had an unemployment rate of 4.7%.
Senate Leader Phil Berger, the top Republican in the state’s General Assembly who represents Eden, called the expansion a “game-changer” for Rockingham County.
“The old MillerCoors facility was dormant for years, and the new Purina operations will help replace the jobs and economic activity that was lost,” he said in a statement. “I can’t emphasize enough how encouraging and positive this major investment is for our area.”
This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work. Learn more; go to bit.ly/newsinnovate