Today, Hart County will celebrate the grand opening of Nestle Purina's new $320-million facility in Hartwell.
Driven by growth of the wet cat food category and demand for Nestle Purina pet foods, Purina’s new Hartwell facility is the company’s first new U.S. factory in two decades and represents Nestle’s single largest investment in a pet care facility in the last decade in Zone Americas.
“As we were looking for a home for our 21st U.S. factory, we came to Hartwell and the things that we noticed was first that the area has a great distribution network, which is a great opportunity for us to have a distribution center in the Southeast region,” said Rachel Miller, factory manager of the Hartwell Nestle Purina facility. “Second, the property, which was a former textile mill, had a great layout for our process and existing structure.”
But it wasn’t just infrastructure and an available facility that led to the selection of Hartwell for the company’s newest factory. The people of the area also played a large role.
“The third and final thing was that the community in Hartwell shares the same values that we have at Purina, which is really important to us,” Miller said. “When we came to visit, we just had such a warm welcome from the civic leaders and local community members and it really just resonated with us and we were really happy to move to Hartwell and now call it home.”
As part of its investment, Nestle Purina has committed to creating 240 new jobs for residents across Northeast Georgia and into South Carolina.
Miller said the available workforce in the area in and around Hart County has been a good fit for the company’s needs.
“As we’ve looked for talent in the Hartwell area, we’ve had really key relationships with the Georgia Department of Labor and other local and regional support groups,” Miller said. “It’s been really amazing the quality of people that we’ve been able to bring into our organization. They’re passionate about pets, they’re passionate about what we’re doing, and I’m just really excited that we can share this next milestone with this group of people that have helped create a very exciting, family-oriented culture here in Hartwell.”
