11031 88th Ave., Pleasant Prairie
Industry: Beverage bottling
Employees: 127
niagarawater.com
California-based Niagara Bottling has been growing its presence in Kenosha County.
The family-owned and -operated bottled water and soft drink supplier built a $56 million facility in Pleasant Prairie in 2014. Six years later, it expanded its storage capacity by adding a second warehouse facility in Kenosha. Most recently, in 2021, the company invested $36 million into its Pleasant Prairie facility to add two production lines, three injection molding machines and 40 jobs.
And in those facilities, Niagara Bottling does it all to create a bottle of water. They start with raw plastic resins and use injection molding equipment to manufacture their own bottles and caps. They fill the bottles, label them, cap them, store them and ship them – two billion per year. The growth has earned Niagara Bottling the recognition of Business of the Year by the Kenosha Area Business Alliance.
Founded in 1963, Niagara manufactures private-label bottled water and beverages for companies like Sam’s Club, Walmart and Speedway, and also has its own brand of bottled water. The company entered Kenosha County in 2014 when it built a highly automated 377,000-square-foot facility in LakeView Corporate Park in Pleasant Prairie.
“At that time, there weren’t many buildings at LakeView, it was still growing, so we thought, ‘Let’s be a part of that,’” said Kristan Pruett, senior plant director for the Pleasant Prairie facility. “We look at a lot of things when we’re looking to expand, like customer demand, proximity to natural spring sources and other water sources. I think on top of that, for the Kenosha area specifically, the burgeoning manufacturing community was very appealing.”
The company expanded in 2020 into a second building that can store more than 20,000 pallets of bottled water. Then in 2021, Niagara Bottling added to its production capacity at the LakeView facility to meet the company’s growth throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. As of 2023, the company employs 127 people in Kenosha County, a 70% increase since 2020. Niagara’s revenue has also increased 35% since 2020.
Pruett attributes the company’s growth to the level of trust they’ve developed with their customers by being reliable and safe, especially throughout the pandemic and its fallout when consumer demand for bottled water soared.
“We continue to grow because we understand the fluctuations in the market and the challenges that came along with COVID,” Pruett said. “There’s been a lot of challenges from labor force to supply chain constraints, and we were able to adapt and evolve and figure out a way to make it happen.”
“I think about the water issue in Flint, Michigan,” Pruett added, referring to the 2014 public health crisis in which the city’s drinking water was contaminated with lead. “Where do you go when you have no source for safe, uncontaminated water in your community? You need good quality bottled water that’s been tested and proven safe. That’s where we come in and our customers know that.”
In recent years, the company has added new products to its lineup, such as branded water for Dasani, 8-ounce water bottles and – as of 2021 – a water bottle that’s considered the lightest in the world, made with a reduced amount of plastic.
Niagara Bottling has also invested in the Kenosha community. The company contributed $190,000 to build new playgrounds at the Boys & Girls Club of Kenosha in 2020 and Grewenow Elementary School in 2022. Additionally, in May 2023, Niagara Cares partnered with the Cal Ripken Foundation to design a state-of-the-art STEM classroom, and also donated to the Boys & Girls Club of Kenosha.
Lastly, Niagara Bottling has supported local first responders through regular bottled water donations and investing $35,000 in the new Kenosha Police Department Training Facility last year, which now allows the department to do specialized training. Previously, the Kenosha Police Department used office space for essential training and professional development.
