The Lehigh Valley’s flourishing food and beverage manufacturing sector was featured recently in CPG Specialist, a publication of the Financial Times.
CPG Specialist, which has a readership of about 230,000, explores consumer behavior and buying patterns and how those trends impact food and beverage manufacturers. It published an op-ed by Don Cunningham, President and CEO of Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp. (LVEDC). 
The op-ed was titled, “Why Big CPGs Like Nestle Flock to My Smaller Region to Make Stuff.”
“If you’re in the Northeastern United States and swigging a Samuel Adams beer from Boston Beer Company, mixing up a vodka and cranberry with Ocean Spray, or pouring some preservative-free Freshpet food into your dog’s bowl, you and Rover are experiencing a taste of the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania,” Cunningham wrote.
“Long a major center for industrial manufacturing, this two-county region — anchored by the cities of Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton — has become a major center for producing beverages and food for both humans and animals.”
In addition to Boston Beer, Ocean Spray, and Freshpet, food and beverage companies with operations in the Lehigh Valley include Just Born, Keurig Dr Pepper, Nestlé Purina, Bimbo Bakeries USA from Grupo Bimbo, Coca-Cola, Stuffed Puffs, Bakerly, and Spot & Tango.
Cunningham said the foundation for a strong food and beverage economy was laid decades ago by Lehigh Valley leaders with forethought. They built a pretreatment wastewater facility in the 1980s, recognizing that infrastructure would be necessary for manufacturing and industrial growth.
“Couple this with the region’s available land and water, a large and skilled manufacturing workforce, and an interstate highway system that reaches both the ports of Philadelphia and New York in about one hour, and access to a third of the U.S. population within six hours (by truck you can reach north of Boston; south of Richmond, Virginia; and west of Pennsylvania into Ohio and the Great Lakes regions) you have yourself the perfect ingredients for food and beverage CPGs,” Cunningham wrote.
His op-ed highlighted Factory LLC, a food industry accelerator created in Bethlehem by Richard Thompson, who brought Freshpet’s manufacturing to the Lehigh Valley a decade earlier. The accelerator provides a location for new companies to grow.
With more than 750 manufacturers producing a collective annual output of $8.4 billion, the Lehigh Valley is one of the top manufacturing markets in the U.S. Manufacturing accounts for 18% of the region’s Gross Domestic Product, compared to 12% nationally.
“As America’s tastes and needs have evolved, so has manufacturing in the Lehigh Valley. Some of the country's biggest CPGs have taken notice. And there's good reason for that,” Cunningham wrote.
CPG Specialist is the latest publication to feature the Lehigh Valley’s economy.
Earlier this year, Le Monde, a prominent French daily newspaper, highlighted the Lehigh Valley in a story about companies abroad investing in the United States. Chief Executive, which bills itself as the independent voice of the CEO community, gave the Lehigh Valley top billing in its annual article ranking state business climates. The article touted the region’s “economic vibrance” as underscoring “the dynamism that remains in state business climates in general.”