Bai Brands moving storage, distribution to former Ocean Spray site in Bordentown

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Beverage maker Bai Brands says will move its main storage and distribution operations to a former Ocean Spray facility in Bordentown, in a major sign of growth for the 6-year-old company.The Hamilton-based venture is moving the operation from that town to a 225,000-square-foot facility once owned by the juice maker, which left Bordentown for the Lehigh Valley in 2014 after some seven decades in South Jersey. Bai Brands has signed a lease with Modern Recycled Spaces, a firm that transforms and modernizes old factories and warehouses, as part of a move that will bring about 100 jobs to Bordentown.

For Bai, the move will help support rapid growth of the company’s line of good-for-you, antioxidant-rich beverages and represents a major milestone, according to a news release. The business, which was founded in 2009 in a Princeton basement, in 2013 signed a distribution deal with Dr. Pepper Snapple Group.

“As a result of our differentiated products and national distribution partnership with the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, we need more space to accommodate the continued rapid growth we have seen over the last several years,” Ben Weiss, founder and CEO of Bai Brands, said in a prepared statement. “Moving our warehousing and distribution to a facility once used by Ocean Spray is a testament to the progress the company has made to date and a reaffirmation of the disruptive impact Bai has had in the beverage industry”.

The beverage maker recently was named by Forbes as one of “America’s 20 Most Promising Companies,” the news release said. And the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group recently bought a minority equity stake in Bai Brands.

“It’s incredible that a homegrown New Jersey beverage company will be moving into the old Ocean Spray plant and once again creating jobs for Bordentown,” Bordentown Mayor Joe Malone said in a statement. “We look forward to working with Bai Brands to continue its meteoric success.”

Daniel Popkin, owner of Modern Recycled Spaces, said Bai has been a longtime tenant of the firm’s in Hamilton. Bai currently rents about 20,000 square feet in Hamilton, according to The Wall Street Journal.

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