Haribo of America Inc. plans to move into a warehouse in Bristol in early 2022, adding to the German gummi bear maker’s operations as it builds a first U.S. production plant nearby.

Haribo leased an entire 157,656-square-foot building in HSA Commercial Real Estate’s Bristol Highlands Commerce Center, according to a press release by the two companies. That facility will distribute Haribo’s finished candies, complementing the manufacturing operation that is to start test production in the fourth quarter of 2022, and ship candies by the second quarter of 2023.

“This move unlocks a logistics and supply chain capacity expansion that supports our accelerating growth throughout the United States, and it will enable us to serve our customers with speed and efficiency, working in tandem with our warehouses on the East and West Coast,” said Lauren Triffler, head of corporate communications at Haribo of America.

Haribo’s Pleasant Prairie manufacturing plant is under construction, and is expected to have about 400 employees. It means the first production of Haribo’s Gold Bear candies in the U.S. They currently are imported to the country from eight company plants across the globe.

Beyond expanding Haribo’s footprint in Kenosha County, the lease fills the last remaining vacant space in HSA Commercial’s Bristol Highlands. There are two buildings in the park now. The other, with 472,176 square feet, was leased by Illinois packaging company Visual Pak. A third speculative building with 447,000 square feet is under construction with an expected early 2022 completion.

Read more at the Milwaukee Business Journal.