H20 for ME, Maine's Water Dividend Trust

Water, Jobs, and Local Taxpayer Impacts

Mecosta County, Michigan
Perrier [Nestlé Waters, NA] completed and brought into production its first plant in May 2002. Over the next year, the plant doubled in size.
What was the impact on the economy??
Nestlé received nearly $10 million in local property and state education tax abatements1
School taxes were waived for 12 years
Only 45 employees are required to run the plant at start up, with 200 people being employed at full build-out2
Gross profits are estimated to be "between one half and 1.8 million dollars a day"3
Red Boiling Springs, Tennessee
At initial startup the water bottling plant will employ about 80 people. Eventually the plant will employ 200 people. Some jobs will be warehouse/forklift operators, production operators, customer service representatives, administrative positions, managers/supervisors and quality control analysts.4
Tennessee has:5
  • no state sales tax on manufacturing equipment
  • no state property tax and no payroll income tax
  • investment tax credit of 1 percent
  • franchise tax jobs credit
  • no state property tax on work in progress and finished product inventories
  • infrastructure and training grants up to $750,000
Currently "only between 12 to 15 people from Red Boiling Springs" are working at the plant.6
"US Department of Commerce has invested $1 million in Macon County to attract $100 million in private investments and create 220 new jobs. The money will go toward improvements and facilitate the location of the Nestlé spring water facility in Red Boiling Springs." 7
Madison County, Florida
Madison Blue Spring is the sight of a new Nestlé Waters bottling plant which broke ground in 2003. The plant will span one million square feet.
Access road was built by state using a $1.3 million grant from the State of Florida8
Nestlé says the plant will initially hire 50 to 70 employees and may provide 250 jobs within 10 years.9
Fryeburg, Maine
Nestlé Waters currently purchases water from Pure Mountain Spring (PMS) which is sourced from wells owned by the Fryeburg Water Company (FWC). This water is sold to PMS from FWC at bulk water rates controlled by the Maine Public Utilities Commission.10 Nestlé Waters has announced they would like to build a bottling plant in Fryeburg, but have announced they have delayed their decision until 2005.11
An official from Nestle Waters announced that there would be up to 350 jobs at a proposed bottling plant at full build out. These jobs would have benefits and would be paid at 75% of the prevailing wage.12
Fryeburg currently is the number two entry point into the State of Maine. Poland Spring has stated that the bottling plant would add about 500,000 more vehicles to the roads with truck and employee traffic.13
 
1Source: Hitting the Bottle, Michigan residents fight for control of the state's water, by Keith Schenider, 23 October 2002 (www.gristmagazine.com/maindish/schneider102302.asp)
2Source: Some call for water law to protect state water resource, courtesy of AP, October 7, 2001 (www.greatlakesdirectory.org/mi/1007water.htm)
3Source: www.anglingmatters.com/ww_midwest.htm
4Source: Intersting Facts about Nestlé Waters North America's Red Boiling Springs Operation As discussed in the Macon County Chamber of Commerce Meeting November 25, 2003, www.redboilingspringstn.com/nestlé_waters.htm
5Source: Welcome to Macon County, TN! Macon County.s Industrial Development Web Site, (www.maconcountytn.com/inddev/index.htm)
6Source: Caught between a rock and a hard place, by Suzanne Brabant, Macon County Time, March 23, 2004 (www.maconcountytimes.com/articles/2004/03/23/news/newsa.txt)
7Source: Nashville Business Journal, October 29, 2003 (Nashville.bizjournals.com/nashville/stories/2003/10/27/daily32.html)
8Source: http://tfn.net/Springs/MadisonBlue.htm
9Source: http://www.research.fsu.edu/researchr/fall2003/springtime.html
10Source: Some Highlights and History of Fryeburg Water Company, an open letter from Hugh Hastings, President and Director of Fryeburg Water Company to the Town of Fryeburg
11Source: Poland Spring cancels deadline for proposed plan in Fryeburg, by Carol Coultas, Lewiston Sun Journal, (http://www.sunjournal.com/search/story.php?ID=49265)
12Source: Poland Spring Public Meeting held in Fryeburg, Maine, January 28th, 2004
13ibid
How Much Water Profit?? Just What IS the Resulting Investment in Jobs?