GAHANNA, OHIO — Niagara Bottling LLC has opened a plant in Gahanna to make PET bottles, preforms and caps.
The plant houses two high-speed product lines from Sidel Group with the ability to produce 108,000 small-format bottles per hour, according to a July 26 news release.
The 308,000-square-foot plant will serve customers in the Midwest. Niagara will invest $50 million in central Ohio and create 73 jobs at the facility, according to Columbus 2020, a regional economic development partnership.
The plant's two Sidel Matrix lines include a dual 24-cavity blow-fill-cap machine; a single high-speed film packer capable of 90 packers per minute; three roll fed labelers; new-generation label formatting; a high-speed palletizer; conveyers and line-automation to "handle the record-breaking production speeds," according to the release.
During the last five years, Niagara has purchased nine high-speed turnkey bottling lines from Sidel. The company now has annual production capacity of more than 10 billion bottles, according to the release.
Niagara, based in Ontario, Calif., says it's the largest supplier of private-label bottled water in the U.S. The company has 12 plants, including the new Gahanna location.