(Seguin) — It’s been hard to find some good economic news during this time of a global pandemic, but the city of Seguin has found a way to do just that. The city on Tuesday finalized a deal that will bring nearly 100 new jobs to Seguin. Coffee Tech Industries is the newest manufacturing company bringing its operations to Seguin. The company makes high-end instant coffee products.
Seguin Economic Development Director Josh Schneuker says the company will build a large manufacturing facility that will also serve as its corporate headquarters. Schneuker says the company is going to invest millions of dollars here in Seguin.
“The company is proposing a $56 million capital investment. This will be an investment over a two year period, $36 million in year one, $20 million in year two. They are proposing 91 new jobs over a four year ramp up period and then when they do get to that full ramp up of employment, payroll will be in excess of $5.8 million dollars,” said Schneuker.
Schneuker says in exchange for its commitment to Seguin, the company will get a number of incentives to build here. The Seguin Economic Development Corporation (SEDC) will give the company the land. It’s property that was already owned by the SEDC, that’s located across from the Niagara Bottling Plant on Eighth Street. The city and Guadalupe County both also offered tax breaks to the company. All of the incentives are tied to the overall investment and to the number of jobs created at the plant.
“For the city of Seguin tax abatement agreement, we are proposing a 10 year property tax abatement. Again, the company will be required to meet the same commitments there with the capital investment, the job creation and the payroll and over that 10 year period that average abatement value is 60.5 percent and then earlier today, Guadalupe County approved their component of the incentive. Again, that was a five year abatement averaging 50 percent over the term of that agreement,” said Schneuker.
Even with the tax abatements, Schneuker says this deal will have an immediate positive impact on the local economy.
“Over the first five years of that agreement, the city of Seguin stands to collect a little over $256,000 in new net property tax collections and when the agreement comes to an end in year 10, we are a little over $833,000 in new net property tax collections. In addition to that, the site is located within all three utility services areas for the city so we stand to gain a new water, wastewater and electric customer and again, additional fees collected through the permitting and development process as well,” said Schneuker.
Coffee Tech Industries CEO Chad McNair was on the Zoom call with the Seguin City Council on Tuesday night. McNair says he’s excited about bringing his company to Seguin. He explained a bit about their operation to the council.
“This will be a very high tech facility. It will be the most advance instant coffee facility on the globe and we need highly trained people. We need people that can operate electronics and a lot of sophisticated equipment. Our intention is to eventually run this plant 24/7, seven days a week and produce very high grade, instant coffee. There is a variety of different products. I won’t go into all that today but the previous company that I built in San Antonio is today the largest cold brew coffee manufacturer in the world making cold brew coffee products for companies like Starbucks, Costo, Walmart, Nestle and those are the kind of customers that this facility would have as well, very high end global customers,” said McNair.
Mayor Don Keil wanted to know if we would be seeing “made in Seguin” instant coffee products on store shelves soon. McNair says Coffee Tech won’t be producing its own brand for retail sale, but they will be making a number of high quality products that will be sold by other well-known brands.
“It will be a what it’s called a co-manufacturing facility which means that we will have customers that bring their possibly roasted coffee to us and we will also be able to have it roasted. We will grind it, extract it and turn it into a powder, a high-end powder and then it will go out under their brand and so, there will not be a CoffeeTech brand in the marketplace so if you buy like Heinz Ketchup today, there’s a pretty good chance that it’s not made in a Heinz plant. It’s made at some co-manufacturing plant. That is the way that a lot of the food industry is conducted,” said McNair.
The council unanimously approved the incentive package on Tuesday night. The Guadalupe County Commissioners Court approved its incentive earlier in the day. County Judge Kyle Kutscher says this deal is a win-win for the people of Seguin and Guadalupe County.
“I think we have a really good agreement in front of us that holds both sides accountable and there’s benchmarks and measures that have to be taken and I think on the taxpayer’s side, it’s very fair. It’s promoting business development, new jobs, stimulation and growth in our community but still being fair to taxpayers, of course, that are within the county and the city already. I just can’t say thank you guys enough. You’ve done a really good job,” said Kutscher.
CoffeeTech expects to break ground on the 112,000 square foot facility in late 2020, with operations commencing by 2022.
Coffee Tech Industries set to build manufacturing facility, headquarters
