NASCAR Driver Matt Kenseth Helps Gatorade Break Ground on New Manufacturing Facility in Mayes County, Oklahoma
Site Will Be Company's Ninth Plant, Built to Satisfy Increased Demand for Gatorade Thirst Quencher and Propel Fitness Water
PRYOR, Okla., July 27 -- NASCAR driver Matt Kenseth joined Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry and officials from The Gatorade Company to break ground today on a new manufacturing and distribution facility in Mayes County, Oklahoma.
The facility, which will be the company's ninth plant, will produce both Gatorade Thirst Quencher and Propel Fitness Water, and is scheduled to open in the fall of 2007. Parent company PepsiCo announced earlier this year that a new manufacturing facility was needed to help keep up with growing demand for the country's No. 1 sports drink and No. 1 enhanced water.
Today's ceremony was given a twist by Kenseth, the 2003 Nextel Cup Champion and spokesman for Gatorade, who drove a bulldozer onto the site to kick-off the official groundbreaking.
"This is an exciting day for us and we've been looking forward to celebrating this occasion with Pryor, Mayes County and the entire state of Oklahoma," said Gatorade president Chuck Maniscalco. "The Pryor area is a wonderful community with excellent resources and an important transportation hub in the South Central Region. We are happy to call this area home to our new plant."
The facility, which is expected to bring 280 jobs to the area, was welcomed by local and state elected officials.
"This is great news for Mayes County and the entire state of Oklahoma," said Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry. "We worked very hard to bring this new plant and its good-paying jobs to our state, and we're excited about the positive economic impact they will have here. This announcement demonstrates once again that Oklahoma is a great place to do business and can compete with anyone when it comes to economic development."
Construction on the facility is expected to continue through approximately September 2007. The new Gatorade plant will be located on 160 acres in the town of Pryor on Highway 69A at MidAmerica, west of the existing Covalence (formerly Tyco) plastics plant. The development will have a collective size of approximately 1.4 million square feet which will include a 300,000 square-foot production facility and a 1.1 million square-foot warehouse/distribution center.
Other Gatorade manufacturing facilities are located in Atlanta, Ga.; Indianapolis, Ind.; Dallas, Texas; Mountain Top, Pa.; Kissimmee, Fla.; Oakland, Calif.; Tolleson, Ariz. and Wytheville, Va.
Gatorade(R) Thirst Quencher, the nation's leading sports drink, is backed by 40 years of research and Propel(R) Fitness Water is the nation's number one enhanced water and the pioneer of the fitness water category. Gatorade is scientifically formulated and athletically proven to quench thirst, replace fluids and electrolytes and provide carbohydrate energy to enhance athletic performance. Gatorade is the official sports drink of the NFL, NBA, WNBA, AVP, NHL, Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, and numerous professional, collegiate and amateur teams and events throughout the world, including University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University. Gatorade is manufactured by QTG (Quaker, Tropicana, Gatorade), a division of PepsiCo. For more information, please visit http://www.gatorade.com/ .
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