Home Care In Fort Lawn, SC

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.

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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.”

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.”

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John Marks graduated from Furman University in 2004 and joined the Herald in 2005. He covers community growth, municipalities, transportation and education mainly in York County and Lancaster County. The Fort Mill native earned dozens of South Carolina Press Association awards and multiple McClatchy President’s Awards for news coverage in Fort Mill and Lake Wylie.

Fort Lawn has been looking for hope ever since Springs Industries shut down one of the textile company’s last plants there in 2007.

Fourteen years later, the tiny town, little more than a crossroads of S.C. Highway 9 and U.S. Highway 21 with a population under 1,000, scored one of the biggest economic development deals in state history.

E. & J. Gallo Winery announced in June it would build its East Coast operations hub there. The nation’s largest winemaker committed to invest $423 million and create 496 jobs in a first phase, which is under construction. More phases will follow over several decades.

The project’s potential impact has drawn comparisons to BMW, which put South Carolina on the global economic development map when it located an auto plant in Greer in 1992. BMW has invested over $11 billion in continual expansions and upgrades at the site, with the impact felt from Atlanta to Charlotte.

Gallo’s impact on Fort Lawn, Chester County and the entire region could mirror BMW’s transformation of Greer and the Upstate. It will certainly remake the fortunes of those small towns in the area that were decimated by the demise of Springs and the loss of thousands of textile jobs through the early 2000s.

“We felt like Charlie Brown and Lucy pulled the football away before we kicked every single time,” S.C. State Sen. Mike Fanning, who represents Chester County, said of past economic development frustrations. “Over the last three or four decades, a football has come into presence, and we get ready to kick it and the football gets taken away and we land on our butts. ... It took a while for folks to believe. There is an energy now in Chester.”

Construction on the first piece of Gallo’s investment is expected to wrap up this summer. The first phase will include a production facility, bottling, canning, warehousing, a regional distribution center and an import and export hub.

View Slideshow 7 photos

E. & J. Gallo's $423 million investment in a South Carolina production complex is remaking the tiny town of Fort Lawn and brings the potential to transform the entire region's economy.

Erich Kaepp, who leads Gallo’s East Coast operations, said the initial portion of the Chester County facility will focus on the company’s spirits business.

The regional distribution center will be the first aspect to open; the target for that is October. Three production lines will follow, targeting February 2023 for opening the first, June 2023 for the second and September 2023 for the third. Recruiting for workers will begin in April of this year.

Kaepp said Gallo’s future expansions will likely come to the Chester County site.

Modesto, California-based Gallo has secured around 640 acres that was mostly owned by Springland Inc., which is operated by family members of the former Springs Industries. That gives Gallo more flexibility than it has at its California headquarters.

The company has said previously that less than half of the land will be used for the first phase. Gallo’s total investment could surpass $1 billion over the course of several decades.

That investment will be made in a county with a Tier IV designation, meaning it’s among the most distressed in South Carolina.

“Not just did we land a great company with a great name, but we basically made a restoration in a part of the state that needed it,” said former S.C. Secretary of Commerce Bobby Hitt.

While the Gallo investment is significant, is the BMW comparison valid?

Joseph Von Nessen is a research economist at the University of South Carolina’s Darla Moore School of Business. He led an economic impact analysis on the Gallo project that was completed in early 2021.

The study projects Gallo will directly invest $1.2 billion into the Chester County operations across three phases by 2040. The analysis also estimates Gallo will support 2,862 permanent jobs by then, including 980 direct jobs. Gallo’s operations are expected to generate over $7.1 billion in economic activity in the state between 2022 and 2040, the analysis shows.

The Gallo project’s impact includes an employment multiplier of 2.5, according to the study. That means, for every 10 jobs directly created by Gallo, another 15 jobs would be created elsewhere in the state on average. The study shows that in 2028, that multiplier could increase to 2.9.

Von Nessen said the average multiplier across all industries in South Carolina is around 1.6.

While the direct investment numbers are not up to BMW’s standard, Von Nessen thinks the Gallo project’s transformational impact is comparable. “Yes, I think it is a fair comparison,” Von Nessen said. “I do see it as being a major game-changer for the region and a major win over the long haul — over the next 20 years or so.”

One big question regarding Gallo’s operations in Chester County is the ability to land workers. Von Nessen’s analysis shows the eight-county region surrounding Gallo’s facility had an unemployment rate of 4.4%, or 12,812 people, as of October 2020. He projects by 2040, when factoring in population trends, there will be 19,038 unemployed people. That would mean Gallo’s operations have the potential to reduce the number of unemployed in the area by approximately 15%.

Von Nessen said Gallo will have to be aggressive in landing workers due to the labor shortage, but the region has the workforce Gallo needs. Gallo is working with the state’s ReadySC program and York Technical College to train workers for its operations, Kaepp said.

Hitt compared the workforce outlook for Gallo in Chester County to that of Volvo Cars in Berkeley County.

Volvo broke ground on its plant there in 2015 with a promise to create thousands of jobs. Hitt said, if you stood in the center of Volvo’s site at the time, you would’ve been “miles from where anybody lives.” But the state and company worked on setting up community meetings in the rural areas to educate and recruit workers. Hitt said turnout was over 1,400 people between three meetings held in the Lowcountry.

“If we look at the numbers, there is a sufficient labor pool in the region but not necessarily in Chester County,” Von Nessen said. “So, they are going to have to go beyond the county itself. … By doing so, there is an ample labor pool within that broader region to sustain the job creation that we anticipate for the next 20-plus years.”

Chester County Supervisor Wylie Frederick is happy with the new types of jobs and operations coming to the county. He and other local officials are trying to prepare residents for its impact.

“It’s different,” Frederick said of a large food and beverage manufacturer landing in the county. “I think that is one thing we have learned in Chester County. If nothing else, you need to diversify your economy.”

Hitt, who retired as S.C. Commerce secretary in June, said the Gallo project first came on his radar because of a prior relationship with a site selection consultant working with the company.

One of the main criteria for the Gallo project was significant rail access, Hitt was told by the consultant.

Hitt said the Fort Lawn site, which is serviced by the Lancaster & Chester Railroad, was the best option across all of South Carolina. The site gives Gallo proximity to the Port of Charleston for the import and export hub. It is also situated midway between Charlotte and Columbia.

The transportation cost reduction of having an East Coast location with rail is significant, Kaepp said, as over 60% of Gallo’s customers are on the East Coast.

Local and state leaders are hopeful that, along with Gallo’s future phases, the area will see momentum follow the project as Von Nessen’s analysis predicts.

“Chester County has always been Chester County,” Fanning said with a downtrodden tone on the second mention of the county’s name. “And now we’re Chester Freakin’ Gallo County. As much as the jobs are important, for a world leader to choose our little set of rural communities to locate their East Coast presence in, there are shirt buttons popping everywhere with Chester sticking out in pride.”

Fort Lawn has been looking for hope ever since Springs Industries shut down one of the textile company’s last plants there in 2007.

Fourteen years later, the tiny town, little more than a crossroads of S.C. Highway 9 and U.S. Highway 21 with a population under 1,000, scored one of the biggest economic development deals in state history.

E. & J. Gallo Winery announced in June it would build its East Coast operations hub there. The nation’s largest winemaker committed to invest $423 million and create 496 jobs in a first phase, which is under construction. More phases will follow over several decades.

The project’s potential impact has drawn comparisons to BMW, which put South Carolina on the global economic development map when it located an auto plant in Greer in 1992. BMW has invested over $11 billion in continual expansions and upgrades at the site, with the impact felt from Atlanta to Charlotte.

Gallo’s impact on Fort Lawn, Chester County and the entire region could mirror BMW’s transformation of Greer and the Upstate. It will certainly remake the fortunes of those small towns in the area that were decimated by the demise of Springs and the loss of thousands of textile jobs through the early 2000s.

“We felt like Charlie Brown and Lucy pulled the football away before we kicked every single time,” S.C. State Sen. Mike Fanning, who represents Chester County, said of past economic development frustrations. “Over the last three or four decades, a football has come into presence, and we get ready to kick it and the football gets taken away and we land on our butts. ... It took a while for folks to believe. There is an energy now in Chester.”

Construction on the first piece of Gallo’s investment is expected to wrap up this summer. The first phase will include a production facility, bottling, canning, warehousing, a regional distribution center and an import and export hub.

View Slideshow 7 photos

E. & J. Gallo's $423 million investment in a South Carolina production complex is remaking the tiny town of Fort Lawn and brings the potential to transform the entire region's economy.

Erich Kaepp, who leads Gallo’s East Coast operations, said the initial portion of the Chester County facility will focus on the company’s spirits business.

The regional distribution center will be the first aspect to open; the target for that is October. Three production lines will follow, targeting February 2023 for opening the first, June 2023 for the second and September 2023 for the third. Recruiting for workers will begin in April of this year.

Kaepp said Gallo’s future expansions will likely come to the Chester County site.

Modesto, California-based Gallo has secured around 640 acres that was mostly owned by Springland Inc., which is operated by family members of the former Springs Industries. That gives Gallo more flexibility than it has at its California headquarters.

The company has said previously that less than half of the land will be used for the first phase. Gallo’s total investment could surpass $1 billion over the course of several decades.

That investment will be made in a county with a Tier IV designation, meaning it’s among the most distressed in South Carolina.

“Not just did we land a great company with a great name, but we basically made a restoration in a part of the state that needed it,” said former S.C. Secretary of Commerce Bobby Hitt.

While the Gallo investment is significant, is the BMW comparison valid?

Joseph Von Nessen is a research economist at the University of South Carolina’s Darla Moore School of Business. He led an economic impact analysis on the Gallo project that was completed in early 2021.

The study projects Gallo will directly invest $1.2 billion into the Chester County operations across three phases by 2040. The analysis also estimates Gallo will support 2,862 permanent jobs by then, including 980 direct jobs. Gallo’s operations are expected to generate over $7.1 billion in economic activity in the state between 2022 and 2040, the analysis shows.

The Gallo project’s impact includes an employment multiplier of 2.5, according to the study. That means, for every 10 jobs directly created by Gallo, another 15 jobs would be created elsewhere in the state on average. The study shows that in 2028, that multiplier could increase to 2.9.

Von Nessen said the average multiplier across all industries in South Carolina is around 1.6.

While the direct investment numbers are not up to BMW’s standard, Von Nessen thinks the Gallo project’s transformational impact is comparable. “Yes, I think it is a fair comparison,” Von Nessen said. “I do see it as being a major game-changer for the region and a major win over the long haul — over the next 20 years or so.”

One big question regarding Gallo’s operations in Chester County is the ability to land workers. Von Nessen’s analysis shows the eight-county region surrounding Gallo’s facility had an unemployment rate of 4.4%, or 12,812 people, as of October 2020. He projects by 2040, when factoring in population trends, there will be 19,038 unemployed people. That would mean Gallo’s operations have the potential to reduce the number of unemployed in the area by approximately 15%.

Von Nessen said Gallo will have to be aggressive in landing workers due to the labor shortage, but the region has the workforce Gallo needs. Gallo is working with the state’s ReadySC program and York Technical College to train workers for its operations, Kaepp said.

Hitt compared the workforce outlook for Gallo in Chester County to that of Volvo Cars in Berkeley County.

Volvo broke ground on its plant there in 2015 with a promise to create thousands of jobs. Hitt said, if you stood in the center of Volvo’s site at the time, you would’ve been “miles from where anybody lives.” But the state and company worked on setting up community meetings in the rural areas to educate and recruit workers. Hitt said turnout was over 1,400 people between three meetings held in the Lowcountry.

“If we look at the numbers, there is a sufficient labor pool in the region but not necessarily in Chester County,” Von Nessen said. “So, they are going to have to go beyond the county itself. … By doing so, there is an ample labor pool within that broader region to sustain the job creation that we anticipate for the next 20-plus years.”

Chester County Supervisor Wylie Frederick is happy with the new types of jobs and operations coming to the county. He and other local officials are trying to prepare residents for its impact.

“It’s different,” Frederick said of a large food and beverage manufacturer landing in the county. “I think that is one thing we have learned in Chester County. If nothing else, you need to diversify your economy.”

Hitt, who retired as S.C. Commerce secretary in June, said the Gallo project first came on his radar because of a prior relationship with a site selection consultant working with the company.

One of the main criteria for the Gallo project was significant rail access, Hitt was told by the consultant.

Hitt said the Fort Lawn site, which is serviced by the Lancaster & Chester Railroad, was the best option across all of South Carolina. The site gives Gallo proximity to the Port of Charleston for the import and export hub. It is also situated midway between Charlotte and Columbia.

The transportation cost reduction of having an East Coast location with rail is significant, Kaepp said, as over 60% of Gallo’s customers are on the East Coast.

Local and state leaders are hopeful that, along with Gallo’s future phases, the area will see momentum follow the project as Von Nessen’s analysis predicts.

“Chester County has always been Chester County,” Fanning said with a downtrodden tone on the second mention of the county’s name. “And now we’re Chester Freakin’ Gallo County. As much as the jobs are important, for a world leader to choose our little set of rural communities to locate their East Coast presence in, there are shirt buttons popping everywhere with Chester sticking out in pride.”

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster talked about all that comes with the new Gallo Operations Facility in Fort Lawn.

“This is a great thing,” McMaster said. “This offers careers, long-term employment with good benefits and good work in a great company. This was a great step forward, not only for the state but for this area.”

McMaster and Ernest Gallo, the CEO of the Modesto-based E.&J. Gallo Winery, were in Chester County for the Oct. 7 ribbon-cutting ceremony. Gallo is the grandson and namesake of the co-founder in 1933 of what is now the world’s largest wine producer.

The new plant could add close to 500 people to the Gallo workforce of about 6,500. It has operations in the San Joaquin Valley, in coastal regions of California and in the states of Washington and New York. The company also imports wine from several nations and produces or distributes several types of liquor.

Gallo has said the South Carolina branch will not mean loss of jobs elsewhere. And in fact, its website listed 59 openings at the Yosemite Boulevard headquarters as of Wednesday.

Construction of the regional distribution facility in Fort Lawn started in June 2021, and there was a push to get it ready by the projected date of Oct. 3. However, company officials said this is just the first phase en route to a long and successful partnership with South Carolina.

“It feels fantastic,” said Stein Edwards, Gallo’s senior director of operations in South Carolina. “This community has been very welcoming, bringing us in. They welcomed us with open arms.

“A lot of our folks that we’ve hired are from this very local area. And they’ve been watching this project for several years, and a lot of them said, ‘Hey, we can’t wait to get started, and we’re so happy what you’re doing for the community.’ So it’s really neat to be a part of.”

Gallo officials said they expect to add manufacturing lines in 2023 as they begin production and making further investments in the state.

Brooke Clinton, president of the Chester County Chamber of Commerce, said the facility will have an impact on the local area both now and in the future.

There are about 80 people working at the site, and Gallo is adding employees.

“We’re training the folks right now,” said Erich Kaepp, the vice president of eastern operations at Gallo. “We’re going through a new warehouse management system, so they’re learning how to do all those kinds of things and get ready to ship. We’ve successfully gotten eight trucks so far. We’ve gotten them all received, so it seems to be going okay, so far.”

The company cited access to the Southeast market and South Carolina’s infrastructure as reasons for choosing its East Coast operations location.

McMaster said there will be more business opportunities coming to the state. He said the people and culture are what draw companies here.

Modesto Bee staff writer John Holland contributed to this report.

Construction of a California wine giant’s facility in Chester County, SC, will begin Wednesday. State officials say the project is a significant step toward revitalizing a poor former mill town.

Gov. Henry McMaster and the South Carolina Department of Commerce announced Tuesday E&J Gallo Winery, the largest family-owned winery in the United States, is officially coming to the small Chester town of Fort Lawn.

The facility will provide bottling and canning as well as warehousing and distribution. It is the company’s first facility on the east coast.

The project is on track to be completed by October of 2022, a press release from the South Carolina Department of Commerce said.

The facility will be on 650 acres between Lancaster Highway and Catawba Creek Road, said Robert Long, Chester economic development director.

Gallo has invested $423 million in the project, which is estimated to create 496 new jobs over the next eight years.

According to census data, 17.7% of citizens in Chester County live in poverty, compared to the United States average of 10.5%. Employment in Chester dropped 8% from 2019 to 2020, data shows.

“Gallo’s $423 million investment and the 496 new jobs in Chester County will transform the region,” SC Secretary of Commerce Bobby Hitt said in a statement Tuesday.

Lawmakers and local officials believe this project will bring economic progress all over Chester County.

“Fort Lawn is one of those communities that was hit hard by the textile mills,” Long said, which is the story in most towns in Chester County. The small town, which was chosen for its proximity to railroads, will benefit greatly from this new venture, he said. “This is a once in a decade project.”

McMaster said in a press release that the “Gallo’s investment will transform Chester County and contribute greatly to South Carolina’s economic prosperity. Creating a business environment in which world-class brands can grow and thrive is critical to South Carolina’s long-term economic success, especially in our rural communities.

Fort Lawn Mayor Carlton Martin said the project is just what the town needed. “We are confident this will attract other companies to join in what is sure to be great things for the Fort Lawn community.”

In May, the governor signed into law a measure tweaking the state’s alcohol legislation, and green-lighting the Gallo project.

Representatives for Gallo had said they would not proceed with the project until the measure was passed, The State reported in March.

The legislation, will allow Gallo to open three off-site tasting rooms and sell customers up to six bottles of wine. The facility is required to close at 5:30 p.m. to avoid competition with local businesses.

This story was originally published June 15, 2021, 1:07 PM.