Primo Water’s first auction, a success

Primo Water announced in November 2021 its plan to exit the North American single-use retail bottled water business. In doing so, the company is closing several facilities throughout the U.S. and Rabin, a multi-generational business specializing in industrial asset sales, is organizing a second auction on August 24th and 25th for the sale of certain of its equipment and assets.

Primo Water Corporation is a leading pure-play water solutions provider in North America and Europe. Through its Water Direct business, Primo delivers sustainable hydration solutions across its 22-country footprint.

Primo is discontinuing the bottling of water in 1-gallon jugs at (15) operating facilities. The equipment being sold are (15) complete bottled water filling lines, which include components from empty bottle debagging systems through case palletizing systems. Within each line are Federal & Fogg rotary fillers, labelers, case erecting and packing stations, plus automatic case palletizing and pallet wrapping systems.

We recently had the chance to speak to Rabin’s President, Richard Reese, about the first auction that took place at the beginning of August and the future event that will take place next week to learn about the equipment and assets for sale.

Richard Reese revealed that the equipment that had been sold in the first auction has been by clients primarily in the western hemisphere, “though we have received interest in India and Africa of late.”

Although “shipping costs appear to be impacting participation from outside North America,” added Reese.

According to Rabin, the first auction was a success and “recovery was pretty close to what was anticipated. However, the one plastic bottle making facility in Oregon was a disappointment due to the blow molding equipment being of Chinese manufacture, which is common in the industrial auction industry. Getting parts for Chinese Equipment is the most notable issue.” 

The material on sale, said Reese, “can be utilized in the daily and beverage industries food processing and packaging industries, not to mention automotive and household cleaning industries (same equipment that packages 1-gallon jugs of windshield washing fluid and DEF (diesel emission fluid).”

To find out more about Primo Water’s second and last auction on 24th and 25th of August, visit Rabin’s website.
 

About the entity

In business for over 70 years, Rabin is a family-held auction and real estate investment company, which acquires and sells industrial facilities and equipment around the world.