business backgrounder | industry
“I think it can be easy here to think that manufacturing
is code for the aerospace industry, but there have been
lots of other things involved,” Wallace said.
More than 2,000 manufacturers call Washington
home, and food processing, computer and electronic
parts and fabricated metal manufacturing have all made
significant contributions to job growth. In the last year,
Pepsi Northwest Beverage has added more than two
dozen positions from production and lab jobs to quality
control techs and supervisors.
As the industry has grown it’s also changed, becoming increasingly high-tech. In most plants, computers are
now as common as forklifts.
Pepsi Northwest Beverage is no exception. The company has invested $40 million in capital improvements,
mostly at its Tumwater plant. That’s part of the reason
the location is considered an “innovation plant” by parent
company Pepsico. As one of six such plants, the Tumwater plant launches new products and produces beverages
beyond soda, including Gatorade and Lipton teas.
42 association of washington business