Westrock Coffee to add 600 new jobs with $300 million investment in Conway

Westrock Coffee is investing $300 million to expand its development, production, and distribution facility in Conway, creating 600 jobs over five years that will pay average annual salaries of about $70,000, the company announced at a press conference Friday (June 30).

The expansion will occur at a 524,000-square-foot former Kimberly-Clark facility. Westrock announced it was purchasing the facility in December 2021 to produce coffee, tea and ready-to-drink products. That announcement said there would be 250 jobs at the plant. This announcement added to that number.

Advanced robotics will help the company produce cold brew coffees, lattes, teas and juice-based products as well as single-serve coffees. The space will include a product development lab and FDA-certified pilot plant.

CEO and co-founder Scott Ford told reporters afterwards the company doesn’t typically disclose its customers, but they include the largest restaurants, retailers, convenience stores and hotel chains who will sell the products under their own brands. Westrock is one of the world’s largest extract, ready-to-drink and coffee manufacturing companies that makes products for other people’s brands.

“We’re going to make product for probably 12 of the top 15 coffee brands in the world out of this facility. … You will have heard of them. … You can go to a grocery store or go to a C-store and open a cold door right now and buy one of them off the shelf,” he said in an interview.

Ford said the $70,000 in annual salaries will be an average of all positions. He said the company typically pays a few dollars more per hour than others in the marketplace at its single-serve plant in North Little Rock.

At the press conference, Ford traced the company’s beginnings to the Alltel telecommunications firm led by his father, Joe Ford, who was in attendance, and then later led by himself before they eventually sold it to Verizon. Scott Ford had dealings in Rwanda when he saw that female coffee growers were being poorly paid for their work by the two men who controlled the market.

“What did we do after that? Well, we started a coffee company,” he said. “And at the end of the day, I had to sit down with my wife and say, ‘I think we’re going to go broke. I’ve put everything we made in Alltel into a coffee company so that these farmers in Rwanda can get a fair price.’ That’s all I wanted was for the farm economics to reflect the market price because the free market works if you let it.”

Ford said that aspect was important because Joe Ford had two brothers in Faulkner County who didn’t survive the Great Depression.

“I saw the same thing in Rwanda, and I said, ‘I can’t fix many things, but I can make sure these women get a fair price for their product,” he said.

There are now many exporters in Rwanda, and farmers are being paid well, Ford said. Westrock remains the largest importer of specialty coffee in Rwanda, but it’s less than 1% of the product it moves through its facilities.

He said the company started in Rwanda 14 years ago and then moved to Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia and elsewhere. It has offices in 10 countries and sources coffee and tea from 35 countries. It won’t make a purchase if it can’t see the price the farmer gets.

It then started a small roasting business in Arkansas that has since grown to its two locations in Conway and North Little Rock. He said he “always wanted to bring the benefit of what we were doing back to Arkansas.”

Ford said that in the company’s beginnings, First Security Bank was the only bank that would finance it, while Walmart and Sam’s Club were early vendors who sent manufacturing experts to help. The Arkansas Economic Development Commission (AEDC) and the Governor’s Office also partnered with Westrock.

Gov. Sarah Sanders described the Ford family members as visionaries and innovators.

“This intensive capital improvement project will make Conway the center of Westrock’s global supply chain,” she said.

Secretary of Commerce Hugh McDonald pointed out that Arkansas is home to the world’s largest retailer (Walmart) and the world’s largest protein producer (Tyson), while Mississippi County is also the nation’s leading steel producer. Now Arkansas is a leader in coffee and extracts, he said.

“Westrock Coffee is another example of bold entrepreneurship finding success in Arkansas,” McDonald said. “Arkansas is a welcoming and supportive environment for businesses like Westrock Coffee to thrive and grow, and we’re proud to see this major expansion happen in Conway.”

“This is a significant jobs announcement for the Conway area,” said Clint O’Neal, executive director of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission. “Congratulations to Westrock Coffee on its continued success and to the community leaders of Conway for welcoming, fostering, and supporting Westrock Coffee as it continues to fulfill its goal to be a global leader in providing beverage solutions to the most distinguished brands around the world.”