Gallo Winery details plans to ramp up Chester County production. ‘The vision is huge.’

John Marks
·4 min read

By year’s end, small plastic flasks filled with new adult beverages should roll off the bottling lines at E. & J. Gallo Winery in Chester County. It still won’t be wine. But give it time.

Gallo opened its $423 million Fort Lawn production facility in fall 2022. On Tuesday, the Chester Development Association’s annual banquet in Richburg brought together the economic development and site selection teams that capped the Gallo deal.

Business leaders also heard long-term plans for facilities five times the size of what Gallo has in Chester County today. The first product came off the canning line last February. High Noon hard seltzers are mostly vodka based, but the plant can make them using tequila.

Last May, the facility started a glass line for 750 ml, 1L and 1.75L portions. It produces vodka for home bars and commercial uses. Last June, a new line added the small shooter-style vodka portions one might see on an airplane.

At the Tuesday event, Gallo said a fourth line that’s coming this year will produce both the New Amsterdam vodka that already runs on two lines, and E&J Brandy. The beverages will come in 100, 200 and 375 ml plastic flasks.

Gallo has more than two dozen brandy, gin, liqueur, cordial, ready-to-drink, tequila, soju, vodka and whiskey brands. Plus the namesake beverage that grew a California company started by two brothers in 1933 into the largest family-owned winery in the world, with business in about 100 countries.

At some point, the Chester County site should grow to bottle wine, too.

“That might be a three- to five-year type build,” said Liz Gase, beverage making and cellar manager for the facility, in an interview. “We don’t have anything set in stone for wine right now.”

This year the facility should produce more than 12 million cases of vodka, vodka-based beverages and brandy. The five-year plan calls for six canning or bottling lines, leaving two to come and four rolling just a year into production.

“The vision is huge,” Gase said.

E. & J. Gallo, the world’s largest privately-held winery, plans to employ nearly 500 people over the next eight years with a $423 million investment in Chester County, South Carolina. The company will add a fourth bottling line by the end of 2024.
E. & J. Gallo, the world’s largest privately-held winery, plans to employ nearly 500 people over the next eight years with a $423 million investment in Chester County, South Carolina. The company will add a fourth bottling line by the end of 2024.

After its best year ever recruiting new business, what’s next for Chester County?

Gallo to add jobs, beverages for decades in Chester County

With up to 70% of its customer base east of the Rocky Mountains, it made sense to jump eastward toward Chester County, Gase said. The company bought about 650 acres.

Gallo committed to hire 275 employees in the first three years, and 400 workers the first five years. The six-line site is 1.5 million square feet. Those space and employee projections are just for the first of five phases.

“Each one would be basically a carbon copy,” Gase said. “This is a 50- to 60-year plan.”

The end result would be a site that produces 180 million cases per year. There’s no guarantee Gallo will grow into that vision, but it’s also possible the company overshoots it. If the first five-year phase is an indicator, it’s a possibility.

“We’re in year two and it already feels like we’ve outgrown the space,” Gase said.

There could be other beverages produced, in addition to current ones and wine. Chester County production frees up the Modesto, California, main space to develop new products through small batch or other research.

High Noon, for instance, started as a vodka and now has more than a dozen flavors as a hard seltzer.

“We are pushing all of the boundaries,” Gase said. “If it’s new, we’ll do it.”

E. & J. Gallo is producing 12 million cases of High Noon seltzers a year at its 1.5 million-square-foot facility in Chester County, South Carolina. That’s about 300 million cans. A new bottling line by the end of 2024 will add brandy and vodka production.
E. & J. Gallo is producing 12 million cases of High Noon seltzers a year at its 1.5 million-square-foot facility in Chester County, South Carolina. That’s about 300 million cans. A new bottling line by the end of 2024 will add brandy and vodka production.

Chester County sees record year for new business

Gallo wasn’t the only company raising a glass to new business this past year.

Chester County saw about $2 billion of new investment with additions like roofing product maker IKO and lithium hydroxide processor Albemarle Corp. — though Albemarle later announced the project will be delayed for an unspecified amount of time. Downtown Chester revitalization came as Great Falls was transformed with the restoration of whitewater falls.

“We’re seeing this in the county as a whole, not just in certain areas,” said outgoing Chester Development Association chairman Jason Stewart.

While other areas counties may look toward distribution or other industries, manufacturing still tops the list of new investment in Chester County. It accounted for about 63% of new investment and job announcements last year.

“Our bread and butter here in Chester County is making stuff,” said Chester County Economic Development director Robert Long. “We have that textile heritage.”