Economic Development Meeting Highlights Growth

LAKELAND - Pepsi Bottling Group showed off its new Lakeland home Thursday: an 110,000-square-foot facility at Interstate Commerce Park that will be used to refurbish thousands of vending machines and soda fountains each year. The arrival of Somers, N.Y.-based Pepsi Bottling was one of several announcements made during the Lakeland Economic Development Council's annual breakfast. Other highlights included:

Swiss flavor and fragrance company Firmenich will expand its Lakeland operations with a new 12,000-square-foot building and facility upgrades that will more than double production. The expansion will add 80 new jobs and is scheduled for completion in fall 2009. Firmenich currently employs 54 people in Lakeland, and has some 100,000 square feet of facility space on 14 acres at Kidron and Drane Field roads. Site manager Denis Cole said officials are still discussing a larger, $150 million

expansion proposed last year that would involve 240 new jobs.

Upscale cookware and home furnishings retailer Williams-Sonoma is readying a 34,000-square-foot distribution center in a new building at Interstate Business Park. No additional details were available on the project.

Canadian firm Outback Essentials has relocated its operations to a 32,000-square-foot facility at Interstate Commerce Park. The company, which makes exterior cabinets and structural support systems for hot tub manufacturers, expects staff levels to number about 30 employees by the end of the year.

The Pepsi Bottling Group building, which hosted Thursday's breakfast, is one of just four remanufacturing centers in the U.S. owned by the company and will be the only one equipped with state-of-the-art robotics used to paint vending machines. The facility will employ between 65 and 100 people and serve Pepsi Bottling's Southeastern operations, refurbishing about 20,000 machines each year.

"It's by far the nicest facility we have in the system," said Jeff Polverine, a director of marketing equipment and field operations for Pepsi Bottling, which is the world's largest producer, supplier and distributor of Pepsi-Cola products.

LEDC director Steve Scruggs closed Thursday's meeting with a Top 10 list of projects for 2007-08.

Leading the list was a roughly 700,000-square-foot expansion planned by Rooms to Go at its Airport Road distribution center. The furniture retailer currently has more than 1.7 million square feet of space and employs 800 people at the site, according to the LEDC.

Also cited were a 98,600-square-foot expansion by logistics firm Saddle Creek Corp.; the 96,200-square-foot facility at Parkway Commerce Center now occupied by Packaging Corp. of America, which lost its Auburndale plant in a February fire; and a 74,000-square-foot expansion by Carpenter Co., a foam and cushioning manufacturer.

In addition, Scruggs said the LEDC will soon make announcements involving the creation of 1,000 new high-skill, high-wage jobs in the Lakeland area, but offered no specifics.

"These announcements will give you encouragement and hope for the future of Lakeland," he told the crowd of more than 325 people.

[ Kyle Kennedy can be reached at kyle.kennedy@theledger.com or 863-802-7584. ]