The Suncup Juice manufacturing facility located in Bethlehem. (image courtesy Google Maps)

A beverage manufacturer has opened a 180,000 square-foot juice production facility in the city of Bethlehem.

Suncup Juice, a third-generation juice producer, is operating in a state-of-the-art facility on the 1100 block of Easton Road in South Bethlehem, according to JVI LLC, the construction management firm that constructed the building.

Suncup Juice manufactures juice products tailored for health care, K-12 education, elderly feeding, day care, and prison facilities, with all of its juices packed to U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Food and Drug Administration Grade A standards.

“We are proud to deliver our third facility in Bethlehem in the past 36 months,” JVI LLC owner Jim Vozar said in a June 8 news release announcing the Suncup Juice project. Production in the facility began late last year.

“Our entire team at JVI not only builds buildings, but builds and develops relationships as well,” Vozar said. “It was a pleasure and honor to work with (Suncup) over the course of the project and see their vision become a reality.”

The Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation (LVEDC) had been in communication with Suncup Juice as they were considering Lehigh Valley for their facility. LVEDC assisted the company with its site search and helped connect it with the local development community.

Food and beverage manufacturing was previously been identified by Garner Economics as one of the four target industries of Lehigh Valley based on the site-specific characteristics of the regional economy.

Lehigh Valley boasts a unique mix of assets to accommodate food and beverage manufacturnig, including a central location with a well-developed transportation infrastructure, agricultural products for food processing, and the availability of water and sewer capacity lines.

The Suncup Juice facility is rail-served and designed with a fully autonomous forklift fleet and fully-integrated production. The site includes a 32,000 square-foot automated freezer and cooler.

Suncup Juice also has production facilities in New Jersey, Georgia, and Arizona.

JVI LLC was founded in 2012. The company also developed the Bethlehem facility for Ecopax Inc., a leading manufacturer of single-use plates and takeout containers, which opened a 144,000 square-foot manufacturing plant in the Lehigh Valley Industrial Park VII.