Gatorade Plant, Pepsi Co, Oklahoma, USA

In June 2006 PepsiCo chose a 165 acre (67 hectare) site along Highway 69A in the MidAmerica Industrial park at Pryor, Mayes County, Oklahoma as the location for its new $180m manufacturing and distribution centre for Gatorade and Propel Fitness Water. Both of these are products of QTG (Quaker, Tropicana, Gatorade). The 1.5 million ft² plant was constructed on a fast-track schedule and was completed and operational by September 2007.

The plant dedicates 400,000ft² (37,000m²) to the manufacture of PET bottles for the beverages and the subsequent aseptic filling, with the remaining space, 1.1 million ft² (102,200m²) is for towards warehousing and distribution. There are four fulltime filling lines at the plant filling 3,000,000 bottles of Gatorade and Propel water each day.

The facility is the ninth distribution and manufacturing operation for Gatorade in the US, and has been logistically designed to serve a six to eight state south central region of the US. The plant is expected to create 280 permanent jobs for the region; currently 180 personnel work at the plant.

Oklahoma Governor, Brad Henry, said: "The facility in Pryor will bring good-paying jobs and a significant economic impact, projected to be $5–7bn over the next ten years." The Oklahoma Department of Commerce said the deal to bring the facility to Pryor was put together in a hurry by the State's Fast Forward team.

Pepsi Co has estimated that 500 to 700 trucks per day will be rolling into and out of the plant site. The facility is adjacent to US Highways 412 and 69, placing it in a critical transportation hub.

PLANT EXPANSION

The plant opened on schedule in September 2007 but by December 2007 an expansion project was announced. This will see the installation of four new filling lines for Gatorade and Propel water by January 2008.

The first new line will be operational in December 2007. The plant will increase its workforce to the expected 280 by the time the new lines have become operational. All line workers must take a 12-week training course.

In addition, Tiger Woods has been signed to promote Gatorade and will have a Gatorade sub-line called Gatorade Tiger. The new Tiger Woods-endorsed bottles will have three special flavours and will use a new bottle design and a new format. Gatorade Tiger flavours, inspired and selected by Tiger himself, will include cherry blend, citrus blend and grape and will be packaged in a new 500ml bottle and a 32oz bottle.

MIDAMERICA INDUSTRIAL PARK

MidAmerica is a 9,000 acre (36km²) manufacturing, processing and distribution centre located south of Pryor. First built over 46 years ago (founded in 1960), the park has four-lane access to major transportation routes both nationally and statewide (including an airpark and quick access to the Tulsa Port of Catoosa). The park also has low-cost electricity from Grand River Dam Authority and an abundant water supply fed by Grand River.

The park now has a 365 acre regional business airport with a 5,000ft runway, and owns the wastewater and water treatment plants. Over 70 firms are located within the industrial park, including operations of eight Fortune 500 companies. Chris Weber, plant manager of the new Gatorade facility, said the Pryor site was chosen because it lies in the heart of the new facility's distribution area. In addition, the water and electrical power (supplied by PSO) are cheaper and the construction site was well prepared, flat and 'shovel ready'.

Gatorade president, Chuck Maniscalco, says it was the Sooner State's central spot on the map that sold them: "The most important thing was geographic location. We needed to fill in the gaps so our transportation costs were optimised."

CONSTRUCTION

Groundbreaking for the new facility took place in mid-July 2006. The new facility was built on a fast-track construction timeline with the intent to be in operation by September 2007. The design builders for the project were the Haskell Company (195 workers on-site).

Planning permission was granted almost immediately by the park after seeing the plans and the park also made some infrastructure improvements to allow for the facilities that the massive Gatorade plant needed.

A 14in waterline was rerouted around the Gatorade property to make way for construction and a Sequential Batch Reactor (SBR) waste treatment plant has been constructed.

In addition, a new 24in wastewater line project was installed for Gatorade. This is a two-segment undertaking to construct a 24in gravity flow sanitary sewer.

Segment one carries wastewater from the Gatorade plant down to a raw sewage pump station. Segment two carries the raw sewage eastward and ties into MidAmerica's main sewer collection system. This was undertaken by Crossland Heavy Contractors.

CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT AND MATERIALS

The project required there to be 35 pieces of major equipment-scrapers, dozers, and dump trucks on site. There was 1,500ft of domestic water line laid along with 5,800ft of process and sanitary sewer. The building itself has required 14,000ft of curb and gutter with 20,300ft of storm and roof drainage pipe.

During ground preparation 400,000yd³ of dirt, including topsoil removal were moved in excavation, 23,000t of lime-kiln dust was used for soil stabilisation and 50,000yd³ of concrete was poured for the base and foundations, which also required 110,000t of aggregate base course and 300,000t of gravel. Over 93,000yd² of asphalt paving were laid for the shipping areas.