Boston Beer Company/Samuel Adams PA Brewery has purchased an 855,000-square-foot brewery that was previously owned by Diageo. The project includes substantial improvements to the facility, as well as equipment and infrastructure upgrades.
The project represents a significant investment - $138 million. But the project is significant not just for the size of the investment, but also for the preservation of the 194 jobs that would have been lost had the company not purchased the facility. In addition to these retained jobs, the company expects to create 55 new jobs.
The package used to attract Boston Beer/Samuel Adams to Fogelsville includes grants, low-interest loans, job training and job creation tax credits. For example, Pennsylvania invested $2.88 million to help Boston Beer/Samuel Adams make repairs to the Breinigsville brewery, which the company had purchased from Diageo for $55 million.
In an announcement that cited a range of investments that included the Boston Beer/Samuel Adams project, Governor Edward G. Rendell said, “Our national economy is continuing to pose enormous challenges for our working families. We cannot afford to wait for help from Washington, or for the situation to grow worse. That is why we are moving forward with a Pennsylvania solution to grow our own economy and create jobs for Pennsylvania workers.
“We know this strategy will work because we have proven it before,” he continued. “When I took office in 2003, Pennsylvania was trailing the nation in job growth and had spent most of the prior four years with a higher unemployment rate than the nation’s jobless number. I worked with the General Assembly to create an economic stimulus plan that attracted new employers and improved our cities and towns.”