Southeast

CONCORD, N.C. — Energy drink giant Red Bull, along with development partners Ball Corp. (NYSE: BALL) and Rauch North America, has broken ground on a 2.3 million-square-foot production, manufacturing and distribution bottling plant in Concord, a northeast suburb of Charlotte. The $1.5 billion investment, as disclosed by several media sources, is expected to begin operations in 2028, with maximized filling capacity anticipated by 2031. The Charlotte Business Journal reports that the companies originally bought the 500-acre site at the former Philips Morris cigarette plant site, now rebranded as The Grounds, in 2021 for $55 million, after first announcing their plans to open a facility. As additionally reported, the plan initially began as a $740 million project, but as the Cabarrus County Economic Development Corp. approved enhanced incentives in 2022, the project expanded. The fully automated Red Bull plant will now offer 170,000 pallet spaces, as well as internal conveyor bridges for intralogistics that will connect can manufacturing to co-packing to warehousing, and lastly, directly to customer deliveries to “minimize carbon emissions.” Ball Corp. will also build an 800,000-square-foot aluminum can plant at the industrial park. The company will produce packaging at the new facility for Red Bull, as well as other beverage …