New in the U.S. & Growing Fast

摘要

One wouldn't expect a Colombian packaging giant to come to Virginia for a cup of coffee, but that's sort of what happened. Grupo Phoenix, based in Bogota, Colombia, employs more than 4000 people producing rigid and flexible packaging, as well as polystyrene resins, in 10 plants in Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, and-as of last year-in Dublin, Va. The newest addition, soon to represent a $40 million investment, started production last October in Southwest Virgina to extrude and thermoform high-barrier portion packs of ground coffee for single-serve coffee machines. As explained by North American CEO Jaime Lederman, the company had been supplying the formed cups from Bogota to Green Mountain Coffee's plant in Knoxville, Tenn. But as demand increased, Phoenix decided it made more sense to produce them locally.