Illycaffè Taps Westrock for North American Production Push

Italian coffee giant Illycaffè has signed a multi-year strategic production agreement with Arkansas-based Westrock Coffee Company for development and packaging of specific products for the North American market, according to the Italian news agency Ansa and other Italian news outlets. 

The companies have not publicly announced the agreement through their own pressrooms or investor-relations channels.

The Italian reports describe Westrock as providing a multi-site production platform that will allow Illy to double the share of products for the North American market that are packaged locally, primarily in the ready-to-drink category.

In a statement to Daily Coffee News, Westrock Coffee Company said, “We’re proud to be a trusted partner to many of the world’s most iconic brands, and we’re excited to continue growing our roster of global partners on our platform, including as a ready-to-drink (RTD) partner, as we expand our footprint across Europe and Asia. We are excited to welcome Illycaffè as the newest member of our platform.”

A production line at Westrock Coffee’s beverage production facility in Conway, Arkansas. 2024 press photo. 

Illycaffè CEO Cristina Scocchia has described the United States as a priority market for the Trieste, Italy-based company, saying Illy has posted double-digit growth in the U.S. over the past four years.

The Italian reports state that Illy’s coffee roasting will remain entirely at the company’s main production facility in Trieste, where the company has been expanding production.

For Westrock, the agreement aligns with the company’s positioning as a large-scale beverage solutions provider serving global brands in packaged coffee, tea, ready-to-drink coffee, energy and functional beverages. The publicly traded company says its platform includes beverage formulation, manufacturing and packaging in cans, glass, multi-serve bottles, single-serve capsules, bulk extract and concentrates.

The company declined to disclose what product types it will handle or what specific manufacturing roles it will perform on behalf of Illy.

In 2024, Westrock opened a 570,000-square-foot, $315 million roasting and ready-to-drink beverage factory in Conway, Arkansas. Upon its opening, the facility included green coffee storage, two automated 360-kilogram-per-batch Scolari roasters, beverage processing tanks, packaging lines and a development lab.

The following year, Westrock opened a 525,000-square-foot facility in Conway devoted to single-serve coffee pod production, further expanding the company’s contract manufacturing and packaging capabilities. 

Comments? Questions? News to share? Contact DCN’s editors here. For all the latest coffee industry news, subscribe to the DCN newsletter.