A large commercial building in Nashua’s Westwood Park has been purchased for $67 million by what appears to be a subsidiary of Nongfu Spring, a giant Chinese bottled water and beverage company that plans to expand into the United States.
NF North America purchased the 337,391-square-foot single story building on 23 acres at 80 Northwest Blvd. in January at a price four times more than its assessed value. Corporate documentation cites water bottling and beverage manufacturing among the intended uses.
Above and below: Product shots of Nongfu Spring water on alibaba.com
Water to the site — for whatever beverage or water bottling production might occur there — will be supplied by the Pennichuck Water Works, owned by the Pennichuck Corporation and supplier of all the water to the city of Nashua.
“It falls within our existing withdrawal permits,” Pennichuck CEO John Boisvert said. Though the water works hasn’t been told just yet what the expected use might be in terms of gallons per day, he said the system has plenty of extra capacity.
“We’re permitted for over 30 million gallons a day. If you look at average day demands, we’re somewhere around 11 or 12 million gallons. In the summertime, we can go up to 20. We’ve got a lot of excess capacity in that withdrawal,” Boisvert said.
While state and local officials are aware of the potential for a water and beverage bottling plant as the intended purposes for the property, no applications for permitting have yet been filed.
The China connection
The connection between NF North America and Nongfu Spring, one of the largest bottled water companies in China, lies in its leadership.
NH Secretary of State records show that the president and director of NF North America is Wu Limin. On Nongfu Spring’s website, Wu Limin is shown as its executive director and chief financial officer. There is also the subtle NF/Nongfu connection in the two company names.
The state records of incorporation show these business entities at 80 Northwest Blvd. in Nashua: NF North America as a foreign profit corporation created on March 13 and NF North America as a foreign limited liability company (LLC) formed on Jan. 21. Its stated principal purpose is: “Production, sales, warehousing, distribution, import and export of food, bottled water, beverages, advertising and marketing business; real estate; holding.”
The other business entity at 80 Northwest Blvd. is Steamfill Packer, a foreign LLC created on Feb. 19 that lists its purpose as “beverage manufacturing and sales.”
Wu Limin is shown as both president and director, along with Jing Gao as chief financial officer for NF North America. No officers are listed for Steamfill Packer. According to the Wu Limin bio posted on the Nongfu Spring website, she joined the company in January 2022 as the general manager of its finance center. She has been its director and chief financial officer since May 2023.
An inquiry sent to the email address provided in the Secretary of State documentation was not answered.
Nongfu Spring’s activity on LinkedIn offers evidence of its plans to expand into the United States — and potentially the Granite State.
A job listing the company posted on LinkedIn two months ago for “Head of Scientific and Regulatory Affairs – U.S. Branch” listed “New York or New Hampshire” as the location of the job.
Three months ago, Nongfu Spring posted a LinkedIn ad for “Head of Marketing, US Market.”
“Our company is a leading beverage giant in China, known for its innovative and diverse product portfolio. With a strong presence in the domestic market, we are now expanding aggressively into the United States,” the post said. “We are committed to bringing our unique and high-quality beverages to American consumers while adapting to local tastes and preferences.”
What state and local officials are saying
According to Sam Durfee, planning manager for the city of Nashua, the intended use of the property for food and beverage manufacturing represents a change to the uses allowed by the industrial park’s zoning. He said it will be “reviewed and processed administratively.”
Durfee said did not have any information as to the scale of the operation in terms of the volume of water to be used and/or bottled, adding “the applicant is working with the state to secure the necessary permits.”
The one current application pertaining to the property is for permission from the city of Nashua to widen the driveway from 45 feet to a width of 86 feet. “This adjustment is essential to accommodate multiple truck approaches, facilitating efficient inbound truck queuing and reducing the quantity of trucks idling or parking within public right-of-way on Northwest Blvd.,” states the application filed on April 24.
It will be heard by the Nashua Planning Board on June 5.
The city of Nashua is the sole shareholder of Pennichuck Corporation.
Boisvert said the site will receive water via Pennichuck’s distribution system and be billed for its use as any commercial customer. That rate could change, he said, if the site needed water infrastructure improvements “to upgrade our system for us to be able to deliver water to their location, meaning bigger pipes and things like that.”
It’s a similar situation, according to Boisvert, to Pennichuck’s supplying water to the Anheuser-Busch, the beer making giant, in Merrimack.
“Anheuser-Busch has a guaranteed large, large demand, and so they actually have a special contract that gets approved by the Public Utilities Commission,” Boisvert said. “This could come under that, if they meet certain criteria, but that remains to be seen.”
Boisvert said Pennichuck board is aware of both the Chinese ownership origin and the possible use as a bottling plant at 80 Northway Blvd.
“We have to treat it like any other customer,” Boisvert said. “That’s who we are as a regulated public utility. It doesn’t matter where the origin of the company is.”
The office of Taylor Caswell, commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Business and Economic Affairs, said it is aware of the Chinese company here but had no role in its decision to locate in Nashua.
“BEA frequently receives inquiries from businesses exploring opportunities to locate, expand, or secure financing in New Hampshire,” said a statement from Caswell’s office. “These inquiries often come through third-party intermediaries, such as consultants or site selectors—seeking general information about available commercial properties, regulatory requirements, tax structures, and other business considerations.
“This was the case with the recent project in Nashua,” said a statement from Caswell’s office. “While BEA has since become aware of the project’s Chinese ownership, no substantive assistance has been requested or provided by the agency.”
‘Undisclosed buyer’
NF North America’s purchase was recorded on Jan. 31 with the Hillsborough County Register of Deeds.
The seller of the Nashua property was Stag Industrial Holdings LLC, a real estate investment trust focused on the acquisition, ownership and operation of industrial properties. The property has been unused for 11 years.
A Feb. 3 press release from Stag announced the seller but not the buyer. “STAG Industrial, Inc. completed the sale of a building in Nashua, NH for gross proceeds of $67.0 million. Representing a cash cap rate of 4.9%, the sale to an undisclosed buyer ended an 11-year hold on the property,” it said.
The city of Nashua assesses the value of the property at $15.6 million.
Questions about the propriety of the ownership were initially raised by a Washington Times columnist. “Nongfu Spring’s quiet acquisition of the commercial property in New Hampshire has been troublesome as it appears to involve buying water from the locally owned utility company and bottling the water and tea for consumption. It is difficult to believe that this New Hampshire facility is the only one planned in America by the largest water company in China,” columnist Rick Berman wrote on April 15.
No federal or New Hampshire law prohibits a Chinese company from owning property here. While other states have considered it, only Florida prohibits such Chinese ownership.
The registered agent for the Nashua entities is CT Corporation System of Concord. As such, it acts as a registered agent for NF North America, making it responsible for receiving official documents and legal notices on behalf of the company. CT Corporation System’s duties as registered agent include ensuring compliance with state regulations and forwarding legal documents to the designated contact.
An emailed inquiry to CT Corporation System was not answered.
What is Nongfu Spring?
The majority owner of Nongfu Spring is founder and chairman Zhong Shanshan.
According to a Bloomberg profile of Zhong, he is a former Chinese journalist who founded Nongfu Spring in 1996, amassing a fortune by tapping into the fact that China is the largest consumer of bottled water in the world.
Nongfu Spring has expanded into other beverages, such as oriental tea, energy drinks and juice produced from its own orchards, Bloomberg said.
In China, Nongfu Spring water is sourced from multiple locations. According to Bloomberg, Nongfu Spring extracted 33 million cubic meters of water in 2019, which is enough to fill 13,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools. The company is also actively seeking new water sources, including in New Zealand and Tibet, to meet growing demand, Bloomberg said.
Two American investment companies — Vanguard and BlackRock — hold significant shares in Nongfu Spring. Zhong has faced some criticism from Chinese nationalists for these financial associations with American investors, according to CNN. As well, according to CNN, Chinese nationalists have waged an internet campaign to boycott Nongfu Spring products because its tea drink features carp-shaped windsocks, which critics say look like Japan’s traditional carp flag koinobori.
What permits are needed?
Lacking any direct comment or information from the company, NF North America’s intended use for the Nashua property is not known. The Secretary of State filings indicate uses that include the import and export of food, bottled water and beverages, as well as beverage manufacturing and sales.
That description, however, does not specify the scale of the operation.
If bottling water is intended, that use is subject to two sets of state rules. The NHDES regulates sources of water used in the production of bottled water under its “Groundwater Sources of Bottled Water” regulation, and the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) regulates its handling and labeling under “Beverages and Bottled Water” provision.
If, as Boisvert from Pennichuck indicated, the water use is already permitted through Pennichuck, any labeling of product would still need to be approved by the DHHS.
While the company may not need to pull a groundwater withdrawal permit, Jim Martin, DES public information officer, said the company will have to register with the state and be monitored if it exceeds certain thresholds.
“This doesn’t matter if it’s Pennichuck’s water or whoever, they still will need to be registered with NHDES If they exceed 20,000 gallons per day averaged over any seven-day period, or more than 600,000 gallons over any 30 day period,” Martin said.
No such filing has yet occurred, according to Martin, since production hasn’t yet started.
Bottlers located in New Hampshire must comply with DHHS inspection provisions.
According to DHHS, licensing requires inspection of facilities ties to determine compliance with New Hampshire regulations and what it calls “good manufacturing practices.” The program also reviews testing results of bottled water and beverages to determine compliance with New Hampshire and federal standards for quality and safety and federal standards for labeling.
“The state has not yet received a licensing application for the location you reference,” said Madison Miller, the public information officer for DHHS.
As of a December 2024 DES listing, there is one current active large groundwater withdrawal permit in the state for bottled/bulk water: In Moultonborough, to C.G. Roxane LLC/Castle Springs Bottling Plant, for up to 240,480 gallons per day.
Two others are listed as not active:
- In Alton, to Chamberlain Springs LLC, for up to 223,200 gallons per day.
- In Pittsburg, to Perry Stream Land and Timber Co., for up to 360,000 gallons per day.
By comparison, Poland Spring, a popular supplier of bottled water in this region, identifies nine locations in Maine from which it sources its water. It also buys water from other sources, such as the Fryeburg Water Co.
Now owned by parent company Primo Brands, it is allowed by regulation to extract up to 398 million gallons of spring water per water year (Oct. 1 – Sept. 30) from its sources in Maine. That averages out to a little more than 1 million gallons per day.
Editor’s note: This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
