Gallo approved for $400M South Carolina bottling plant. Will it affect Modesto jobs?
E.&J. Gallo Winery of Modesto announced Tuesday that is has final approval to build a bottling plant in South Carolina.
The plant will employ about 500 people but will not reduce jobs in Modesto, the company said earlier.
The $423 million project in Fort Lawn will be the hub of East Coast operations for the industry giant. It will start with warehousing and distribution and then add bottling, boxing and canning of wine over eight years.
The company won approval from Chester County officials, along with a change in state law allowing it to have three tasting rooms in South Carolina.
“Gallo’s investment will transform Chester County and contribute greatly to South Carolina’s economic prosperity,” Gov. Henry McMaster said in a news release.
The winery has grown to be the world’s largest since its founding in 1933 by brothers Ernest and Julio Gallo. It employs 3,000-plus people in its hometown and about 7,300 worldwide.
A spokesperson said in April that Modesto “remains ideally located to support the growth of our Central Valley wine portfolio.” The site has hired more than 300 people in the past year and planned to add even more.
The headquarters off Yosemite Boulevard handles winemaking, sales, glass production, management and other tasks. Gallo also has operations near the California coast, in Washington and New York states, and in several foreign countries. It markets several brands of spirits along with its core wine products.
Fort Lawn is a former textile mill town with fewer than 1,000 residents. It is in the north-central part of South Carolina, about 45 miles south of Charlotte, N.C.
Gallo plans to start construction Wednesday and have the first employees working by October 2022. The site is served by the Lancaster & Chester Railroad and has convenient truck access to the port of Charleston.
The project received a $16 million Rural Infrastructure Fund grant awarded through Chester County. It also got $8 million in bonds to “offset costs of off-site mitigation under the Economic Development Bond Act,” the release said.
CEO Ernest J. Gallo, grandson of the co-founder, thanked the state and local leaders “who have embraced this project throughout the planning process and have welcomed us to the community.”
This story was originally published June 15, 2021 at 2:00 PM.
