LITTLETON, MASS. — An investor group has acquired the former Sunny Delight bottling plant in Littleton. The joint venture, consisting of Gordon Brothers Group of Boston, New Mill Capital Holdings of New York, and Odyssey Real Estate Capital of Las Vegas, plans to remarket the 332,000-square-foot plant to other companies that may use the space. Financial terms were not disclosed.
A bottling operation since 1931, the plant previously produced such beverages as Veryfine juices, AriZona iced teas and smartwater. Kraft Foods owned the plant as recently as 2007 before selling it to Sunny Delight Beverages Co., which Brynwood Partners VII L.P., Greenwich, Conn., agreed to acquire earlier in January.
The plant is available with or without the existing bottling equipment and would allow an existing bottler to be in production within months. The property includes a waste-water treatment plant that allows for up to 750,000 gallons per day to be processed. The plant features a reverse osmosis system, recently upgraded can and bottling lines, a rail spur, freezer and cooler space, and high-bay warehouse with 25 loading docks.
“I’m not aware of any other available bottling plant in the U.S. that has this kind of modern infrastructure and throughput capacity,” said Gregory Schain, a principal at New Mill Capital Holdings. “This plant could work excellently for a beverage manufacturer or for many other uses. The space is flexible enough to accommodate lots of different industries and the local workforce is very strong.”