Starbucks will double production at its Minden roasting plant with two new roasters and two new packaging lines plus 43 new employees as part of a five-year plan, said Chris Gimbl, a spokesman at Starbucks' Seattle headquarters.
"We are well on our way to reaching our full capacity, which means roasting and delivering between 60 to 100 million pounds of coffee a year to our California and Southwest markets," said Gimbl.
Hiring the 43 new people began in October and is slated to finish by the end of summer, bringing total employment to 193 at the Minden facility.
Employment by January 2008 will top out at 200 to 250, said Gimbl.
When the roasting plant and distribution center opened two years ago, it employed 88.
About half of the new employees have already been hired."Our goal is to hire all these new partners locally," said Gimbl.
Since the 360,000-square-foot facility opened in January 2003, Starbucks has used the state's Train Employees Now program, said Sandy Haslem, project manager for the Manufacturing Assistance Partnership.
"Some of it is on-the-job training, some is specialized on-site programs," she said.
Starbucks paid a 56 percent match for the training program, and will pay the new hires an average wage of $15.14 an hour, said Tim Rubald, director of business development for the Nevada Commission on Economic Development, which oversees the training incentives.
He expects the new group of Starbucks employees to use the training program within the next six months.
The training is administered through Western Nevada Community College and will cover industrial maintenance, computer applications, quality control, sanitation, safety and warehouse management systems.
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