THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, June 12, 1996 TAG: 9606120515
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MYLENE MANGALINDAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 52 lines
Punctuated by the flourishes of a Shinto-style ceremony and heavy rainfall, YUPO Corp. broke ground on its $100 million synthetic paper factory in Chesapeake Tuesday.
YUPO Corp., a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Oji-Yuka Synthetic Paper Co. Ltd., announced plans in January to build a paper plant in Chesapeake's Greenbrier Commerce Park.
Chesapeake-based YUPO has already started hiring the first of its 100 employees, said president and CEO Toshiaki Hida.
Six American employees have been hired, including the plant manager, the human resources manager, an accounting manager, an executive secretary and a receptionist, Hida said.
YUPO also named Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America, a subsidiary of one of Oji-Yuka's parent companies, as the general contractor for the plant's construction, said Masahiko Tanabe, president of Oji-Yuka.
Construction of the plant will begin immediately and be completed in early 1998.
The groundbreaking ceremony highlighted Japanese customs of the Shinto religion. The symbolic rituals established union with the divine being, the Kami, and expressed humans' appreciation to the land and nature for their many gifts.
Two Shinto priests from the Tsubaki Grand Shrine, one of the oldest shrines in Japan with 1,600 years of history, performed the elaborate ritual, which lasted about 30 minutes and included bowing and other audience participation.
Individuals such as Tanabe, Oji-Yuka's president, Chesapeake Mayor William E. Ward and Sean T. Erwin, president of the Pulp and Newsprint Sector of Kimberly-Clark Corp., which distributes the company's product in the United States, participated in a plowing ritual, a modified version of the traditional shoveling portion of a groundbreaking ceremony.
Japanese executives representing The Sakura Bank Ltd., Isewan USA Inc., Tokyo Marine Management Inc. and other companies plus the Virginia Secretary of Commerce and Trade Robert T. Skunda attended the ceremony.
The Chesapeake plant will manufacture synthetic paper products primarily for the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Oji-Yuka was established as a joint venture between the New Oji Paper Co. Ltd. and Mitsubishi Chemical Corp. in 1969.
Its primary product, a synthetic paper brand named YUPO, is produced from a polypropylene plastic base and has been sold in the United States under the ``KIMDURA'' trademark by Kimberly-Clark Corp.
YUPO is used primarily for pressure-sensitive labels for oil and chemical drums and various industrial applications, thermal printed airline baggage tags, bar code labels and recording paper for diagnostic machines, and commercial printing for posters and maps. In 1994, 5,000 tons of YUPO was imported into the United States. by CNB